by David L. Miner

Anarchy is a terrible thing if we listen to our contemporary media or our government. As a result of the powerful meanings subtly communicated by the media and our government, most of America has been deceived as to who or what is working toward anarchy. We have been deceived as to what should be done to save America from these groups. And we have been terribly deceived as to what must be done to save us from this supposedly horrible situation. We will attempt to examine the word and its emotional baggage in this article. In addition, we will take a close look at the primary cause of anarchy and see that the very government which so fears anarchy is the chief cause of it. In future articles, we will examine more closely exactly what the government is doing to stop anarchy, and what Americans should be doing to stop the government.

The first assumption about anarchy is that anarchy and rebellion are the same, or in some way connected. The dictionary tells us that anarchy is taken from the Greek word for no ruler and it means the absence of government, or a state of political unrest due to the absence of government. The media would have Americans believe that right-wing extremists, sometimes known as the Patriot Movement, hate government so much that they would bring about anarchy in an attempt to destroy America. Many books and articles have claimed that the Patriot Movement is actively rebelling against laws and lawful authority just to bring about anarchy. The Patriot Movement is regularly accused of being a "hate group" with a racial agenda, in addition to planning to resist or attack all forms of authority. No proof and almost no evidence are offered for these allegations. The media just expect Americans to accept the claims as truth and to move on from there.

While these accusations may be true of some in the Patriot Movement, these allegations are also true of some in every career or profession, in media leadership, in the Democratic Party, in Congress and the White House, and in your local church or synagogue. These comments are true of some in every large group or organization in history. But it is no more fair to accuse the Patriot Movement of being anarchistic and bigoted than it would be fair to accuse any other large group of being anarchistic and bigoted. And when we say large group, we must point out that in a recent FBI report, the Patriot Movement was estimated to be 25 million Americans strong.

First, the typical Patriot does not want anarchy, nor does he/she have the power to bring anarchy about. No group inside America can bring about anarchy. The Patriot Movement does not want the lack of government; it wants a Constitutional form of government. It may be that a Constitutional form of government is not what Congress or the current Administration wants, and that is why they fear the Patriot Movement. But we do not hate government and we do not want it removed or destroyed.

Second, the government itself is bringing about the very anarchy it so fears. Anarchy results from individuals deciding that disobedience of laws will result in little or no risk of punishment. Over time, this attitude results in the overall pattern of resisting all authority. The federal government, particularly the federal judiciary, demonstrates a decided lack of enthusiasm for enforcing federal criminal laws (especially existing gun laws), except insofar as the enforcement benefits the government. Most criminals, especially those with money or influence, seem to get off on a technicality entirely too often. This develops in most Americans the feeling that the laws are to be enforced only against "the little guy" and not as a result of a pursuit of justice. The natural response on the part of many, perhaps most, Americans is a subtle disobedience of many of the laws easily broken or ignored. This is the beginning of anarchy, pure and simple. And it must be stated that the federal government is at least partially responsible in the increasing state of anarchy we see all over America, especially in some of our inner city areas. It is to be expected that individuals will disobey laws that are not being enforced, or enforced equally.

Another reason for anarchy comes when the government passes so many laws that the average law-abiding citizen cannot keep up with them, or else too many laws of the type which are perceived by the citizens to be control for the sake of control. Americans have buried deep in their historical genes the desire to be free. Even the most compliant and submissive American still longs to be free. This deep desire for freedom, when coupled with an overabundance of laws that don’t make sense but exist solely for the sake of control, can and does result in individuals simply choosing to ignore laws. This "Just Say No" attitude is becoming commonplace all through America, where normal people ignore speed limits, don’t buckle their seatbelts, cheat on their income taxes, and rebel against government in hundreds of other ways, all the while believing that this is typical. The belief that "everybody does it" is a result of an inner resistance to the increased government laws and often petty controls that have been pouring out of our various legislative bodies at an ever-increasing rate over the past few years. When "everybody does it," we are seeing anarchy.

Anarchy is being more and more manifest in America, and it is not a result of the Patriot Movement. Two hundred years ago when America had little in laws and had much in personal responsibility, we saw very little anarchy. People responded to social order because it was right. Now we see far too much anarchy. Most of those who are participating in this individual resistance to government would never associate themselves with the Patriot Movement. This common and general resistance, leading to increased anarchy, is a direct result of the government increasing their control over all Americans in a manner that just doesn’t feel right to most of us. We were meant for a better life than one fraught with concerns over which of many new laws is unknowingly broken today. We were meant to live free!

Yet this broad-based rebellion, which includes most Americans to some extent, is similar in many ways to those feelings of rebellion within the Patriot Movement. The difference is the Patriot Movement knows and understands where the real motivation toward anarchy comes from. We know that this anarchy comes from a government that ignores its Constitutional checks and balances, its limitations, and its legal requirements. We know that God intended that Americans should live free. We know that our central government has been dead set against that freedom for most of the last century. We know that when the government ignores the very document that gives it life, that this same government is in great need of serious and perhaps severe medical services: surgery to cut away the diseased philosophies, diet to reduce the size and weight, physical therapy to help it work better in the areas it needs to function, and amputation to remove from it the agents and agencies that should never have developed in this government.

We who call ourselves Patriots do not want to eliminate our government; we just want it to be physically fit and fully functional. And we will know our government is fit and functional when it conforms to the only document that defines and delegates its life, the Constitution for the United States of America.

When one is born to better things, one tends to ignore laws of little threat or insignificant impact. This constitutes a benign form of anarchy.

Constitutional government is essential but of little day to day impact, as long as it remains inside its Constitutional limitations. Government will be ignored by We The People as long as it maintains those limitations. But once government exceeds the limitations as established in the Constitution, then government will not be ignored by We The People any longer. It will be changed by those Americans who care about the Constitution and it will be resisted by those Americans who care only about their own convenience; yet both will be described as anarchy by those who fear either.