If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. – Charles Darwin (The Voyage of the Beagle, Chapter XXI)
Section 1: Care
11
Suppose the government gives a little guy a box to stand on so we can have equity. In another situation, an economist showed a factory that polluted the land and then talked about how the production contributed to civilization. Though the economist understood life had value, the economist thought pollution was a necessary evil. Stories about boxes and factories might not seem related unless the factory assembled boxes for the government. Governments and factories seem necessary. But why can’t the little people bring their own boxes? Why should the rest of society serve one little needy bastard? People can make boxes without factories. We do not need the government or the factory.
We could run to the woods to leave civilization, but instead of running away, let us stay and rewild society. I do not recommend autonomous zones. I was at Tompkins Square Park in New York when a bunch of Anarchists pushed the police out of the park and started an autonomous zone. This was before the Black Lives Matter movement established its autonomous zones. Back then, it was a disgusting place, full of rejects, bums, junkies, nuts, and talentless musicians. These social rejects cannot defeat anything. The contributors to civilization must turn against it, or the police will come back to close the park.
After leaving the park, I traveled around and paid attention to the world outside of myself. I met people in the cities who are considered poor and live in tiny boxes, struggling to pay the rent. I also met people living in the backwoods, away from town, who seemed rich with life, and some had less money than the poor in cities. Perhaps the problem was not a lack of money. A lack of money does not cause poverty; in the same way, a lack of drugs does not cause drug addiction. You would not give an addict more of their addiction. Poverty occurs when people lack the basic necessities that humans need. Humans need fresh air.
A group of Socialists in New York discovered I had visited hillbilly country, and they made a bunch of remarks about hillbillies being ignorant, superstitious, and bigoted. These Socialists consider themselves enlightened. They never met a hillbilly. Backwoods hillbillies possess a strong sense of purpose and understand life in a way that no one in a city can ever know. These Socialists claim to defend working people against large corporations; however, they show no interest in what the workers have to say. Instead, they talk for the people. Socialists always think the solution to everything is more socialism. This usually means they want to spend your money, and poor people get passed around from one government program to another. When I told the Socialists that the poor already have too much government telling them what to do, they accused me of ignoring the needs of the poor, of being a spoiled rich kid, of having an elitist ideology, of idolizing the successful rich, of seeing the suffering of the poor as necessary, and of not knowing the difference between right or wrong. They did not seem interested in getting to know me.
Journalists, politicians, academics, billionaires, and celebrities have a significant influence on our culture. This small number of people gets more attention than everyone else. Some of these elites see the workers’ culture as bad and call them a basket of deplorables (Clinton, 2016). Leisurely intellectuals love to sit in their comfy chairs and despise the workers who serve them. It has been going on since ancient Greece. Plato was a leisurely intellectual who thought democracy allowed the common people to create tyranny (Republic, Bk VIII). Plato wanted a few top men to make all the decisions. People who have never worked a day in their lives will lead the workers. People who don’t know how to do anything think they should be the ones telling everyone how to do everything.
While growing up in Brazil, I occasionally heard wealthy people hurl insults at their servants. The person throwing the insult does not see themselves as bad, and they think the servant was trying to manipulate the situation maliciously. This is the same argument prison guards use against prisoners. The servant does not have to do anything to get this treatment. Snobbish people act as if the world is about them and they do not respect others. They perceive others as the problem, which enables them to justify their own disrespect by portraying themselves as moral saviors of the world. Socialists are disgusted by the idea of treating the deplorable with respect.
There are no real differences between the different forms of socialism other than the pretentious words they use to describe themselves. Marxists want to sit around telling people what to do and call it a revolution. Fabian Socialists just want to sit around and tell people what to do. All Socialists have the same arrogance that pretends to know better than everyone else. Pretending to care lets them feel superior to those who don’t pretend to care. My Socialist friends blame Western culture for exploiting the populations of Africa, India, and Asia. Do those cultures need socialism to fix them? These cultures were stable before Western influence began to expand around the world. If the West should leave people alone, these Western Socialists should also just leave them alone. Also, some African countries with failing economies have had Socialist governments for decades. They don’t need any more.
The economist Thomas Piketty wants to eliminate the inequality between the rich and poor by having a global government take money away from the rich (Piketty, 2014 ch. 15). That sounds like a terrible idea. When did governments use money wisely? The government can spend trillions on trash cleanup and still fail to pick up a single piece of trash. Governments can also create a centralized bureaucracy that undermines every productive service. Let’s say someone claims the government will make better cookies than private companies, and this person forbids private companies from making cookies. We end up with stale cookies that cost more, and we are all required to buy them. You might even be required to eat them, and you’d better say you like them, or you will be sent to an education camp.
Instead of wasting money on social programs, invite the poor into your home to let them join your family. Don’t just dump them into someone else’s neighborhood the way rich liberals do. No one should be required to take in people they do not want. Those rich liberals feel virtuous when they dump thousands of immigrants in your neighborhood. Three wealthy towns on Martha’s Vineyard held town meetings to discuss not enforcing immigration laws to deport immigrants (Settles, 2022). How magnanimous of them. Then, when a crazy Florida governor sent a bus full of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, the liberals had the National Guard remove the immigrants faster than you can say the word hypocrites. I am not sure why liberals want to import so many poor immigrants into our society. Perhaps they need poor people to borrow money since the new world order is funded by moneylenders. Maybe the extra bodies give their district more voting power, allowing them to steal political influence from citizens. Perhaps they hate working people and enjoy dumping millions of additional people on them. Possibly, Liberals want cheap labor to clean their toilets. The Democratic Party started as a bunch of supporters of slavery. The Party has not changed; they still need their slaves.
Independent organizations are encouraging people to undergo dangerous migrations. These organizations need to be exposed. We need to know who is funding them and what their political motivations are, because thousands of people are dying in deserts and oceans (Brian, 2014). Other people on these journeys are beaten, robbed, and raped. I do not know what kind of Catholic charities are involved in this activity or why the church isn’t doing more to stop humanitarian organizations from sending people on death marches or packing people into boats. Most people assume that these charities are helping people, and you might think that the immigrants are refugees from places with economic and political trouble. These assumptions might not be accurate. Economic and political conditions have improved worldwide. These charities may be recruiting people from areas where they would be better off if they had stayed at home. The immigrants that the socialists bring in are considered criminals if they cross a border illegally. They could be treated like criminals who will live in separate neighborhoods, and their descendants will live generation after generation, depending on socialist government programs. These aliens don’t live with the rest of us, and they don’t like us.
I should also point out that these death marches and death boats are not the only option for migration. Most countries allow migration through means that do not require sneaky socialist organizations. People who choose legitimate methods of travel are more likely to fit into their adopted cultures. I don’t think socialists want people to fit in. They want to bring conflict to cultures that they hate, and they are willing to let thousands of people die in deserts and oceans to destabilize our way of life. I want migrants who want to become Americans and help make America great. I want the United States to be the cultural melting pot that it once was. Most people are happy with a few newcomers. We don’t hate immigrants, but we don’t need socialist charities recruiting thousands of unwanted people so they can fill our neighborhoods with immigrants, homeless people, and junkies. Socialist charities have been collecting money for over fifty years, and the more needy people they collect, the more money these nonprofit organizations receive. I was born in another country, and I did not come to the USA to be a slave of socialism.
Section 2: Why I Am Not a Christian
10
If we can not find justice in politics, let us try religion. Christians claim that we can find moral guidance in the Bible; however, in one verse, God tells us to kill, and in another, God advises against killing.
“Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.” (Joel 3:10)
“And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:4)
With these kinds of contradictions, anyone can easily use Bible quotes to support whatever they want to believe. A few centuries ago, people used the Bible to support slavery. Even today, people use the same book to support discrimination against feminine people and homosexuals.
I found verses in the Bible that supported genocide, vengeance, and hatred: “And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:” (Deuteronomy 7:2)
I found verses that supported Animal sacrifice: “Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat:” (Leviticus 16:15)
Homophobia: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” (Leviticus 18:22)
Superstition: “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22)
Sexual discrimination: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” (1 Timothy 2:12)
Intolerance: “And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death.”(Leviticus 24:16)
The Bible supports the rape of children: “But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.” (Numbers 31:18)
Theft: “But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.” (Deuteronomy 20:14)
It supports racism: “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)
It even supports sacrificing a virgin: “And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,” (Judges 11:39)
You might think that the Bible says, “Thou shalt not kill.” It does not use the word kill. It uses a sneaky word that allows killing that is authorized. The historical books of the Bible contain stories about slaughtering entire towns. The bible does not call this killing murder if it is authorized by God. The prophets talk about enemies being made miserable by a vengeful God who authorizes a lot of killing.
How could a moral person with any sense of right or wrong follow this book? Perhaps I am being too literal and ignoring how people find good in the bible? I could be taking these verses out of context. However, the correct context for these verses died over a thousand years ago. I could never fully understand that Bronze Age culture. Also, no one knows which interpretation God wants. Fortunately, people do not follow the bible. Instead, people ignore the bad parts and observe whatever they want the book to say, and most Christians think the Bible supports whatever traditions their parents taught them.
The Old Testament has laws that seem cruel. By the time of the Roman Empire, people were growing tired of cruel laws and sought a more compassionate form of religion. In the New Testament Gospels, Jesus emphasizes the importance of humans doing good to one another.
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)
Instead of following the laws as written, people sometimes claimed they were following the spirit of the law. This attitude allowed people to claim they were following the law while circumventing some of its cruelty. Pharisee named Hillel practiced a similar reinterpretation of the law before Jesus.
“Hillel said to him, Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you! That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary, go and learn!” (Talmud, Shabbat 31a)
Unfortunately, in modern times, Christianity failed to become what Jesus wanted it to be. For Example, Jesus told us to turn the other cheek.
“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Matthew 5:39)
I have seen world leaders claim to be Christian, and some of them have claimed to be doing what God wants when they go to war. I have never seen one turn the other cheek.
Catholic priests say the body of Christ lives in the Holy Mother Church of Rome. This church condemned scientists, tortured witches, and made masturbation a sin. Missionaries wanted to save souls by bringing them the Word of God and ended up carrying disease all over the Americas, killing millions of natives (Diamond, 1997 p. 373). I don’t think that a compassionate God guided these missionaries. A compassionate God was not guiding Pope Francis, who continued to support a faulty mass migration that was killing thousands of people each year.
While watching TV today, a Protestant preacher said everyone must accept Jesus into their heart or live a life of sin. Does the pastor not know people who do good without Jesus? Pagans tend to love green places on Earth and then work to preserve the environment. Secular humanists contribute all kinds of benefits to society by supporting basic rights. Most atheists read books and develop informed arguments. Meanwhile, some Christians support cruel authoritarian institutions while ignoring what Jesus said about forgiveness. People choose their behavior for various reasons, and no magic makes you do right just because you believe. Meanwhile, giant churches make preachers rich, contradicting the time Jesus told us to give away our possessions.
“Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. “(Matthew 19:21)
Jesus wasn’t always a nice guy. Jesus sounded like a cult leader who tells people to hate their families and only love the leader.
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26).
Fortunately, most Christians ignore this verse and instead equate Christianity with family values, which is good because people do not find greater universal love by hating those in their families.
Jesus told people the kingdom of God would happen during their lifetime.
“Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28).
Jesus said that two thousand years ago, it never happened, and most of the people who knew Jesus are dead by now. Due to Jesus, Paul, and John making up doomsday predictions, Christianity has become a death cult that waits for the end of the world. We need to consider our future instead of waiting for the world to come to an end. Because the world will live on, and we are the ones who will build the future. Augustine tried to make Christianity a religion that looks forward to building the future in the book “The City of God.”
The Bible says little about environmental issues. In Genesis, God gave us dominion over creation, which can be interpreted as a mandate to care for the world, or it could suggest that God gave us the world to exploit. The Bronze Age people who wrote Genesis never witnessed the extensive environmental damage of the modern world, and they did not realize the critical importance of ecological issues.
Section 3: War is never holy
(Conjecture) 11 e1
In the Qur’an, Allah tells objects to be, and so objects were.
“To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth: When He decreeth a matter, He saith to it: “Be,” and it is. “(Qur’an 2:117)
Exactly how Allah spoke to an object before it existed was a mystery that Islamic philosophers attempted to solve by assigning new meanings to words they had learned from Aristotle. For instance, Ibn Sina wrote about essence (Mahiat) and existence (Wujud) in the book “Al-Shifa.” Theologians write long books using similar words, though no one knows if these words are relevant to God. Also, most people have no desire to worship a god made out of overworked logic. The Qur’an instructs people on how to live, so they do not waste time with useless philosophy. Muslims recite every line in the Qur’an in a state of solemn ecstasy. So, let us see what their book says.
There is a lot of cruelty in The Qur’an. The Qur’an allows little girls to be enslaved and allows men to rape them.
“Also (prohibited are) women already married, except those whom your right hands possess: Thus hath Allah ordained (Prohibitions) against you: Except for these, all others are lawful, provided ye seek (them in marriage) with gifts from your property,- desiring chastity, not lust, seeing that ye derive benefit from them, give them their dowers (at least) as prescribed; but if, after a dower is prescribed, agree Mutually (to vary it), there is no blame on you, and Allah is All-knowing, All-wise.” (Qur’an 4:24).
The writers of the Qur’an sure love to chop off body parts.
“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;” (Qur’an 5:33)
These men also love to beat their wives.
“Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husband’s) absence what Allah would have them guard. As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (Next), refuse to share their beds, (And last) beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them Means (of annoyance): For Allah is Most High, great (above you all).” (Qur’an 4:34)
Page after page in the Qur’an teaches believers to condemn nonbelievers, and Muslims demand that everyone respect Islam. They do not respect other religions. Few people understand the broad range of books clerics use to interpret the Qur’an. One such book, “Reliance of the Traveler,” a Sunni interpretation of Sharia law, promotes cruelty against people who break the rules. Such books provide instruction for those who want to make people feel terror. Condemning the idols of others, claiming to submit to the one true God, and teaching aggression against others, Islam spread through conquest.
Under Islamic law, Christians must pay extortion money and feel inferior.
“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” (Qur’an 9:29)
Even calling Jesus the son of God in your own home will be considered an attack against Islam, and millions of Christians have been murdered. The only way not to offend Islam is to become a Muslim. I refuse to accept such a law; people do not need permission to exist. Muhammad resembles Paul, who also wanted to see violators of the laws get punished in flames. Both Muhammad and Paul condemn anyone with a different image of God. In pagan religions, God had more than one face because pagans had more than one way of knowing God, which Joseph Campbell called the Masks of God. I refuse to believe the face behind the mask resembles the hateful God of Paul or Muhammad. Fortunately, most Muslims do not imitate the crueler verses in the Qur’an and tend to be nice people with a good moral compass.
In 1964, Sayyid Qutb equated the West with greed and called for a return to Islamic fundamentalism. Muslims have told me that the decadent West needs Sharia law. They ignored how vices that happen in the West also occur in cultures under Sharia law. Few nations outside the West accurately report problems in their own neighborhood; therefore, people see the West as decadent due to the West being more honest.
According to the social critic Noam Chomsky, people in the Middle East have good reasons to complain about how the West treated them. Powerful governments have been manipulating those of other nations (Chomsky, 2014). Now, we have enemies worldwide that do not need to be our enemies, and people in those countries don’t trust democracy. Also, when our diplomats make treaties with Muslim countries, they talk to political organizations, and huge amounts of money go to those organizations. The sons of people connected with these organizations live in wealth, while children in other parts of the Middle East are dying. We should be talking directly to the people. However, the simple truth is that policymakers do not respect ordinary people enough to bother talking to them like they were people.
The West is not the only one to blame: the worst parts of the Qur’an can be used to promote an institution of perpetual terrorism. Warlords create a holy war with everyone, which never ends. These warlords have mastered the art of pretending to be victims while losing battles, allowing generations to suffer. These politicians use children as pawns in war and then blame their enemies when these children die. The people in Western countries feel compassion for the victims and convince Western politicians to sign peace treaties and send aid to Islamic countries. This gives the terrorists time and money to rebuild their forces. They come back screaming Allahu Akbar while they kill more people. That is why Islam is a religion that is wrong.
The news can ignore millions of dying people in Africa and Asia. So, lots of people in the West don’t know about the genocides committed by Muslims. A friend who watches the Cable News Network accuses Israel of genocide. Israel is a tiny country fighting against billions of people who want to murder them. The Jews have been pushed around for thousands of years. They are not going to back down. Muslims have plenty of land and will not share a tiny piece. Muslims have forced other Muslims to stay in war zones such as Gaza, where people have been starving, while children have been murdered. The international community has sent billions of dollars to Gaza (Associated Press, 2021), yet devious groups take the money and allow the suffering to continue. Then they spend millions to attack Israel, and every time the Muslims have attacked Israel, thousands of Muslims have died. This situation has been going on for decades, and Muslims are going to allow the problem to go on because the Qur’an won’t let them admit they are wrong.
The CNN viewer calls me ignorant and Islamophobic. This person thinks my words are the opinions of Western imperialism, and the viewer claims that Western values do not fit Islamic countries. Before you reject Western culture, consider the improvements Western culture has made. Modern Science, rights for individuals, and democracy are not just for sinful Westerners; any society will benefit from them. Let us discuss the good in Western values and invite good Islamic people to join us.
The American Constitution protects the right to complain about our government. Consequently, the West’s ability to doubt itself is what enables our democracy to function; disagreement motivates people to make choices. Maajid Nawaz made an inspirational TED Talk about the value of democracy (Nawaz, 2011). Nawaz had visited countries where subjects living under dictators had never experienced the potential of democracy. The CNN watcher claims Nawaz supports the language of the oppressors. My friend has never been out of the United States. Just visit a country that has oppression, and you will understand how much we need Western democracy.
Liberals feel righteous when they think you are wrong. Some of them think you are morally wrong if you say anything bad about Islam. Most of them will never read the Qur’an or learn about what is actually in the book. Some of them think Muhammad was a pacifist like Jesus. When I point out that Muhammad was a warlord, they tell me that I am wrong. Hopefully, a good version of Islam will prevail because Islam is going to be the largest religion in the world, and it will have a lot of influence over us. Unfortunately, Islam is also capable of hurting people wherever it goes, and the Qur’an directs suffering against people who have not been born yet.
Section 4: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
(Speculation) 10
By complaining about religious people, we portrayed them as stereotypes. For example, Christians are called hypocrites. How many Christians do you know who fit this stereotype? Few of them do. So remember, most Christians and Muslims are not villains. However, all religions have an ugly side, and it shows when they do evil.
In the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna wants to avoid killing a bunch of family members, and then the God Krishna gets Arjuna to kill them by telling a bunch of religious nonsense. So many feel the need to invent bloodthirsty religions. Can’t these people think of a better way? What if the text combines the good and the bad, because people need both? The Bhagavad Gita is part of a much larger book called the Mahabharata. The war in the book provides a framework for stories about doing your duty. It might sound benevolent at times. Unfortunately, lawful people can be cruel. While enslaved, Frederick Douglass experienced the cruelty of religious people.
“For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others.” (Douglass, 18)
The mask of religion allows people to pretend to be better than they are, and this mask attracts those who want to be worse than they need to be. So, why would anyone search religion for ethics? Aquinas thought God’s essential Nature was goodness (Summa I. Q. 6, Art. 3). You could just assume God equals good and then claim God does no wrong while ignoring the way the hateful God of the Old Testament sounds like an evil dictator.
In the Smalcald Articles, Martin Luther asserted that faith is more important than one’s actions (First and Chief Article, 1537). Luther drew the idea from Paul, who emphasized the importance of faith in Jesus.
“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” (Romans 3:28)
Paul thought the world would end soon and turned to superstition instead of considering the consequences of the real world. Such true believers will make all kinds of ridiculous claims about their leader. Paul claimed that all of us need salvation from sin and then told us that Jesus died for our sins.
“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:9)
Paul never met Jesus and only knew an imaginary Jesus. Apostles who knew Jesus, such as James and Peter, preferred good deeds over faith. Even in the Gospels, we find verses that highlight the importance of performing good deeds.
“For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” (Matthew 25:35-36)
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40)
Unfortunately, some Christians assume we must believe in eternal punishment, or people would have no reason to do good. These religions try to scare people into obeying laws, yet fear does not make the laws right. Tyrants invented the moral codes, which the employees of inquisitions and concentration camps enforced. This kind of lawful evil has been a problem throughout the history of civilization. Progressives aim to address these issues by enacting more effective laws. Let us consider another solution. Our sense of right or wrong never comes from a moral code. The good comes from our social behavior. Kindness, charity, and love are all rooted in our biology. What if people could eliminate moral codes and still be moral?
When religious people scream and wave their arms around, insisting their way is better, ask to see the evidence of this better way. Ask such questions, and do not dull your mind by bowing the way Muslims do or singing the way Christians do. Instead of following ancient superstition, try to make the best of the life you’re living right now and find better places for answers than the Bible or the Qur’an. The insecure need a God who agrees with them, but putting words in God’s mouth does not make the words right. Why assume that God knows what is right? Perhaps even God emerged from cosmic chaos and lives in the process of learning. What if the good in the world exists, even if God considers it wrong? Take a moment to look around and find reasons to choose to do good.
The ends justify the means only in hypothetical situations. In reality, no end is the end of the story. The bad stuff you did could hurt you or someone else. Life is a learning experience. Although cultural traditions and biological instincts guide us, we develop a sense of right and wrong through interaction with others, and good people learn by getting along with those around them. Good ethics requires the art of knowing what to give or what to take. The choice is dictated by necessity, and no one moral code fits all situations. Although we make decisions without knowing what will happen, we minimize evil by practicing fairness, honesty, and respect for boundaries. You do not need God to appreciate these standards. Just imagine times when people did not apply these standards, and at that time, the standards felt necessary. Perhaps moral values become true when we need them. Ethics stems from the pursuit of values. We can explore values in the same way people discovered mathematics by engaging in mathematical reasoning. So even if there is no God to tell us right from wrong, we can figure it out for ourselves. Also, the consequences are not the only criterion to follow. We can do good simply for the sake of doing good.
If you belong to a brutal religion, find a better religion. I know that leaving a religion can be extremely difficult if your family condemns you for quitting. The need for love can lead us to lie to ourselves, and we make choices that are not truly ours. People might claim that following the religion’s requirements is their own choice. Try not to follow the requirements, and you will be pressured by people who do not want you to have a choice. Unfortunately, these people are relatives. Sometimes you have to tell them that you are going to go your own way.
People tell me that religions have the ability to reform. They tell me that Judaism and the Catholic church have both reformed. I’m not sure if that’s true. They might not have been that bad originally, and they might not have changed as much as people think. I enjoy reading letters written by people from long ago, and those from the past were remarkably similar to us today. Perhaps the problems we face with religion today are the same as those people have faced in the past and will likely persist into the future.
If you belong to a group that commits murders, are you a murderer? I suppose you are if you are one of the people who know what is going on. People support organizations even when they have no idea what is going on. So, who are the people who do know? I don’t know. Good people should stay away from organizations that murder. They should stay away from organizations that domesticate our sisters. They should stay away from organizations that try to control the world. They should stay away from organizations that torture people. You are not the good guys if your organization does these things. If you find that your team members are engaging in these behaviors, should you walk away or attempt to address the situation? I don’t know. Very few people walk away. They let themselves become part of the process. Perhaps something in them does not want to see evil. Before you condemn them, what evil do you not see? You might not know because you don’t see it.
Section 5: Lawful Evil
(Conjecture) 10
Jesus told us to forgive, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:” (Luke 6:37)
Though Jesus wants people to be friendly to others, plenty of law lovers think society will fall apart if evildoers are allowed to go unpunished. They ignore the verses where it is stated that only God is supposed to judge.
“There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?” (James 4:12)
Governments like to play God and restore justice in the world. So, they build court systems to punish and rehabilitate people. You might assume the courts make fair decisions after you watch fictional trials on TV, where actors play judges who make honest decisions. Go to any courthouse in the United States to see what happens. Courts seldom search for the truth. Instead, lawyers gamble and bluff while courts take away pieces of freedom as if our rights were poker chips. The accused has to win these chips back. The police and prosecutors carefully manipulated facts and avoided revealing any truth that could help the accused (Alexander, 2013). The courts do not prosecute people for crimes. People get prosecuted for technicalities. These technicalities only exist in the language used by lawyers, and I will not discuss the law in legal jargon. Legal jargon should be illegal because the jargon is designed so that anything you do can and will be used against you.
My first encounter with the courts occurred after I paid a friend’s bail. My friend was not released. Instead, the jail used the money to pay for its own expenses, including jail fees. I told them to return the money since they did not provide what had been paid for. The clerk just walked away from the window. Bail bond agents would not allow the courts to keep the money. This state eliminated bond dealers, so now the courts get away with theft, and the jail system will steal from anyone in a desperate situation. Eliminating the bail agents was supposed to help people with low incomes. Without bail agents, the state was free to increase the time waiting for a trial, raise the bail price, and increase the ways courts keep the money.
A drunk was attacking people, and my friend thought calling the police was the right thing to do, and then the caller got arrested for making false statements. The person was telling the truth and assumed that this misunderstanding would resolve quickly after speaking with a judge. Instead, it took over four years of going to court to get the legal system to drop the charges. Anyone going through a similar experience will learn what the police can do or what the police will do. They also learned what the courts can do or will do. The usual day in court would consist of waiting hours for a clerk to move a piece of paper around a desk while the accused goes through years without a chance to present evidence. The paper on the desk has all the control.
Television shows portray police investigating crimes. In reality, most arrests occur after a single officer makes a quick decision, and no one will ever investigate the accusations; the courts tend to treat the police as a reliable source of information. One bad police officer, with the intelligence of Homer Simpson and the ethics of Eric Cartman, will ruin the lives of multiple people. Imagine how many innocent people were prosecuted before the advent of video cameras. We need a lawyer and a video camera with us at all times to protect ourselves from the opinion of a single officer.
“However, enough officers—at all ranks—have internalized this message that a culture of reflexive enforcement action, unconcerned with whether the police action actually promotes public safety, and unconcerned with the impact the decision has on individual lives or community trust as a whole, has taken hold within FPD. ” (Ferguson, 2015 findings p. 12)
When I was paying my friend’s bail in the jail’s waiting room, people talked about getting caught up in the system for years, as the courts kept scheduling more tasks for them to complete. Some states allow pretrial conditions (Mahoney, 2001) to punish the innocent before a trial. Pretrial conditions consist of frequent drug tests, frequent body searches, having to check in on random days, and repeated interrogations while constantly being threatened with more penalties.
I learned that in the United States, you have the right to a fair trial and the right to a speedy trial, but you will not get both. The number of people being prosecuted increased until the legal system could no longer afford to give everyone a trial. The courts could stop prosecuting so many; instead, the courts invented methods of finding people guilty without a fair trial. A large percentage of prosecutions result from plea bargaining (Langbein, 1978).
“Our investigation has uncovered substantial evidence that the court’s procedures are constitutionally deficient and function to impede a person’s ability to challenge or resolve a municipal charge, resulting in unnecessarily prolonged cases and an increased likelihood of running afoul of court requirements.” (Ferguson, 2015 findings p. 42)
I was raised to believe that the justice system has improved because it no longer imposes cruel penalties. I now know that a process does not make things better when the process becomes the punishment. Bureaucrats are very effective at delaying the process and rescheduling trials for years. After an arrest, a person may lose their job and have trouble finding a new job with the arrest on their record. Eventually, the accused find themselves alone, abandoned by friends and family. They end up financially and emotionally bankrupt with no one to help them. Being forced to wait while emotionally stressed is worse than the penalty. To make it stop, people plead guilty and get locked behind bars without ever presenting any defense.
“Convictions are guaranteed by a plea bargain.” (Hessick, 2002).
Now, the United States government puts a ridiculous number of us in cages (Glaze, 2013). Prosecutors want to score another victory, even against an innocent person, so some courts skip unnecessary formalities and operate under a “rocket docket” (Johnson, 1997), where a person is automatically found guilty. Sometimes, the accused are pressured into naming someone else. The next person will likely face the same pressure. It goes on forever, and they won’t let go. An old lady in Ferguson started with a parking ticket, which the justice system escalated into jail time with huge fines. This happens way too often (Brennan, 2016). People get trapped in the legal system, spending years being passed from judge to judge, lawyer to lawyer, and jail cell to jail cell. They want it to stop, but no one listens.
“The truth is that government officials have deliberately engineered the system to assure that the jury trial system established by the Constitution is seldom used,” (Lynch, 2003)
Even if you did get a trial, the story about getting a fair trial from a jury of your peers is fiction. In many cases, a jury is not deciding whether something happened. You could have a case that should never have been brought to court, and all the jury hears are legal words that even graduate students barely understand. The jury consists of ordinary people who are required to make decisions using the judge’s legal jargon. Judges can play with definitions to steer juries’ decisions. I have seen judges, police, and prosecutors talking to each other like best friends for life. They decide the verdict before the trial.
“The municipal court does not act as a neutral arbiter of the law or a check on unlawful police conduct. Instead, the court primarily uses its judicial authority as the means to compel the payment of fines and fees that advance the City’s financial interests.” (Ferguson, 2015 findings p. 3).
The Halls of Justice lost sight of justice when each prosecution became a statistic on the books, which politicians would use to justify the growth of the courts. Now, every civilized city has a courthouse where people get humiliated. Society is the target of this scam. Even a person who wins a case ends up broken. After years of trial, the system stole a life that never got a chance to achieve any goals or objectives. The person who could have been was prevented.
“And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.” (1 Samuel 8:18)
Section 6: The War on Drugs
(Conjecture) 11
“And now bills were passed, not only for national objects but for individual cases, and laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt.” (Tacitus, Annals Bk III, 27)
Tacitus wrote that back in the days of ancient Rome. We have way more laws today. I know people who think the government is respectable and trying to protect us. Governments have often failed to show respect in various ways. No one tested to see if the war on drugs would produce good results before they forced it on the whole world. The war on drugs targeted black men, and this has devastated black neighborhoods. Meanwhile, secretive gangsters took over distribution along the Mexican border. Police blame the gangsters for the increase in murders and then recommend more law enforcement. The increased police presence coincided with an increase in gang activity (Carpenter, 1990). Now, politicians spend huge amounts of money to keep this war going, violating our right to free choice while claiming to do good for us. We need better ways to deal with drug use.
The war on drugs turns the innocent into suspects and gives the civilized authorities the ability to search your house and probe your body. Law enforcement encourages people to spy and snitch on family and friends. Millions of people have been sent to prison for minor offenses. (Gupta, 2011). The children of prisoners have trouble fitting into society, creating a class of outcasts and future criminals. Large sections of society become ghettos when those in control knock people down and prevent them from improving themselves. All this happened after the government interfered in society.
Though drugs are a waste of time, the government should never have the right to send people to drug addiction treatment. No one has the right to force treatment upon another. Freedom involves an element of risk; we have a right to make mistakes. We have the right to choose the way we wish to correct these mistakes. Also, whether any treatment works is questionable, especially the methods developed by Alcoholics Anonymous (Glaser, 2015). Would the people who claim to have gotten better have gotten better on their own? Is the treatment a wastes money and people’s time? Do the people who fail the treatment deserve to be punished if the treatment is bad.
According to information from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, only a tiny percentage of drug users ever become addicts (NSDUH, 2008). Did the government make the drug problem a bigger problem than it was by targeting occasional drug use? Would drug use increase without law enforcement against drugs? Portugal reduced prosecution for drugs, and according to Time magazine, drug use decreased in Portugal (Szalavitz, 2009). Unfortunately, after ten years, the drug problem returned to Portugal.
Cities now have sections where junkies set up large camps. These camps would not exist if the government stopped providing services that supported the junkies. Even though drugs should be legal, governments or charities do not need to encourage drug use. You might say that we should be compassionate to junkies. Well, you’re not helping if you’re making the problem worse by passing out needles and pipes. We do not need to allow junkies to set up camp near where our kids play, and you have a right to tell junkies to go away. You should also have the right to tell the charities to go away. You should also have the right to tell the government to go away.
Some of you might think that punishing users would help them. That might not work. Publications by the National Bureau of Economic Research indicate that children released from jail often emerge as worse criminals than they were when they entered (Aizer, 2013). If law enforcement does not work, legalization does not work, treatment does not work, and compassion does not work, what do we do about the drug problem? The source of the problem for the addict isn’t always the drugs; it can be conditions in life that lead a person to become an addict. Research by Bruce K. Alexander shows rats living with other rats are less likely to use drugs than rats kept in cages alone (Alexander, 1981). Humans also need an extended family for good psychological health. In the modern world, we see a growing number of troubled kids being raised by single parents. Perhaps we will not be able to build large families in civilized societies. The only solution would be a return to a tribal way of life.
Unfortunately, the war on drugs makes us addicted to more government. Now, institutions make every choice for us and watch everything we do. We must choose our own destiny without interference, but lawmakers want to be the guardians of morality to fix us; we are not broken. People can work together, and people share when they are confident in themselves. Civilization fears confident people, so it destroys our confidence, telling us we are bad. The insecure will destroy freedom rather than let anyone have it. Our insecure authority figures do not know the right way. No one has it all figured out. The government should leave us alone, yet authorities can’t, and laws are a symptom of their hatred. Civilization is organized hatred against us.
Civilization has spent thousands of years punishing people as if God authorized the government to control us. Did God actually give the government this right? People give this right to the government. If you support a law against murder, and the law leads to more murders, then are you a murderer? Law supporters need to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Consider all the people who died due to the war on Drugs. Due to all the deaths, I can not consider a lawful government to be a moral thing to do. We must do something different. We could choose not to punish people. So what if the bad getting away seems unfair? Just let the bad go. Governments do not have the right to rule over us. God did not give them the right to rule. The masses do not have authority over the minority. The government has no right to tell anyone what to think
A senior police officer told me that I should be ashamed of not respecting the government. This guy looked like an overgrown Boy Scout with all the merit badges. This representative of the law goes around all day long, expecting respect. This was not a small town where the local sheriff did good deeds. This was a big city, and this cop was a bureaucrat. Those merit badges were earned by pushing buttons. These are the people who think they can tell us what to do. We need to stop prosecuting people, but I don’t think we will be able to do that until we find a way to make people like this cop unnecessary.
Suppose an innocent person is presumed guilty. A fair trial might help that person. A proper court would have fair and clearly defined rules. Unfortunately, a civilization built on a psychotic need to punish allows Governments to set up prisons, issue fines, and outsource protection to the police to make people feel safe. We have become weaklings who depend on unnecessary services to protect us. This allows the Government to use the courts to keep us under control. Some of you think this control is necessary, and you might point out how cities like San Francisco have limited the prosecution of crime, and looters began robbing stores. Perhaps the problem is that humans are not made to live in such large numbers. We need to stop building cities that create crime.
I asked the senior police officer, “What if the laws made problems worse, and people could find solutions if the police got out of our way?” The officer accused me of being immature. I know I am immature. The question is still not answered. I make a lot of assumptions, and they could all be wrong, but I am not using them as reasons to lock people up. We should be questioning the law. I went to a spot outside the city and noticed that no one had visited that place for a long time. In a city of over twenty million people, why was I the only one who had come to the spot outside the city? People don’t consider me to be someone worth believing, so I could never convince anyone else to visit the spot, which is a shame because it’s an amazing place.
Next Page Chapter 12
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