^.^
Greetings to all!
Recently, I weaved you a yarn about my encounter with Laramie's "peaceful Satanist", a man named Jeff Archer. I encountered him at the local food bank, where he was engaging the staff in a lively political discussion.
For those who want the details, please visit my previous blog entry on the subject.
Now for the update...
Mr. Archer had told the people at the food bank of his naturally-built house, which was situated just off the city's greenbelt pathway, near one of our parks. It was sitting in a public park, and therefore in public property.
Shortly after he revealed the location of his "wigwam" to the people at the food bank, I saw a newspaper article on the front page of the Laramie Boomerang, which I deliver to 110 (or so) subscribers. The article stated that police had talked to Mr. Archer, and had informed him that he was in violation of several city ordinances, including putting up an illegal residence structure, and sleeping in a public area. He was given until the 8th
to vacate the area, and the newspaper article said that the wigwam would be torn down.
Mr. Archer made several statements to the Laramie Boomerang that are insightful on his worldview...and just how whacky that it is.
First, he said that he used to live out of his car, until the US invaded Iraq in 2003. At that time, he decided that he could not continue to live in his car because it uses oil...and he believes that the war is an illegal and unjust war over oil...so he doesn't want to contribute to that.
Toward the end of the article, Mr. Archer said that he doesn't consider himself homeless. "I don't own anything, and the earth owns me." Therefore, he doesn't have a problem constructing a wigwam and living without the comforts and conveniences of modern life. He doesn't like renting or owning a home, even if he could afford it, because that is feeding an evil system of ownership of landlords, and reliance of residents on landlords for their shelter.
Some of this is interesting. Hey, if someone wants to construct a wigwam somewhere and live like a hermit, more power to him. The problem I had with the situation is the slap in the face that Archer did toward all the rest of us, who are law-abiding citizens of the city who may wish to use the public parks.
See, almost everything in human civilization is based on the ownership of property. If you don't think so, just think of what would happen tomorrow if people all of a sudden were not able to say "I own this."
First, there would be no property ownership at all. I could walk into a store and take anything because the store does not own the products it sells. I could arrive back at my apartment and find someone else there. I would be out of luck because I don't own the apartment, and neither does my landlord.
Think about money. What money does is transfer ownership of goods and services. You go to a store, and you pay the store what the store says is the value of a loaf of bread, or whatever. In return, you gain ownership of that loaf of bread. Without property rights, the basis for any sort of economy is reduced to nothing. You wouldn't be able to trade anything because even if you could determine the value of something, since there is no respect for ownership, the storekeeper could conceivably mob me at the door to the store and tell me that that loaf of bread is his...again. This reverberates all across human society. Gas and oil are purchased at a value, ownership changes, and it is bought and sold throughout the economy. Ownership changes numerous times. The government would not be able to collect taxes, because taxes are based either on ownership of property (housing taxes), or the ownership of time and effort (income taxes), or the ownership of products (sales taxes). With no respect for ownership, the government can't collect taxes, and therefore can not spend for programs and services...for such things as business development, or even basic things like road repair and construction.
At the very basic level, the case of Mr. Archer and his wigwam was a valuable lesson in the thing that is the basis of human society as we know it...the idea that a man can not walk into a public park and essentially co-opt a part of it for his own personal use. Just like I can not walk into your home and shack up in your living room.
It's unfortunate for Mr. Archer, especially at this time of year. However, the case is an affirmation of the society we live in, and until proven incontrovertably that our society is completely whacked, I am willing to "back the system", as they say...
Ta ta for now...
John B.
Blog Guy
Friday, December 10, 2004
Saturday, December 04, 2004
The Peacenik Satanists
^.^
Alrighty.
I went to lunch today at the local food bank. While there, I met this guy, who is a naturalist, and also a peacenik.
Now, I can understand not liking war. I don't like war either, and I hope that wars happen as infrequently as possible. I can even understand the anti-war types who believe that war is wrong, and we should not be engaged in it, and I can even understand those who think that the current war in Iraq is bad and that we should not be involved in it...I may disagree with these people...but I understand them, and why they think the way they do.
Then there are the peaceniks.
These are people who think that war...ANY WAR...is at least wrong. The guy I met at the food bank thought that people engaged in war were doing "demonic work" through the killing of other people.
Tell that to the US soliders who landed on the beaches of Normandy.
Of course, God doesn't like wanton killing. It's important enough to be one of the Ten Commandments, and Jesus himself asked people to "turn the other cheek". However, to say that God is totally against war ignores half of the Bible...you know, the half where God used war as a tool through the Hebrew Israelites to conquer the peoples living in the lands of Canaan. You didn't see God having any second thoughts about killing people who didn't worship him.
When I mentioned this to this peacenik, he scoffed at it. When I repeated it, he insisted that that's not how God works now, and when I told him that he was missing the point...that God himself has used war as a means to an end, that was when this peacenik said he was a "New Testament Christian".
That is to say, "I don't believe half of the Holy Book".
I told him he could not do that, theologically. There is a verse in the Bible that condemns a person from subtracting from the Bible, and similarly for anyone adding to it. This did not phase our peacenik, who said that the verse was probably in the book of Revelations, and that Revelations was propagandist, and probably was not written by John the Baptist at all...
I then practically laughed at him. Not only did he not take the Old Testament at value at all, he was quite willing to pick apart the New Testament as well. Now, this is America, and you can say and believe what you wish, but that does not necesarily make it true. In a debate, or argument, you have to be able to convince the other person that YOU are right in order to change their minds.
However, not only did I find that this person only took the parts of the Bible that backed his philosophy up, and discarded the rest, but he told me that on the issue of men killing men, he was not going to change his mind at all. I accused him of being closed-minded, and he admitted that on that issue, he is.
The problem with peaceniks, and Laramie has more than its share of them, because we are a college town...the problem with peaceniks is that they do not recognize that the world is full of evil people...and sometimes, the only way that evil people will listen to reason is if that reason is backed up by a heavily-armed man with a big gun, and the will to use it...and he is accompanied by about 500,000 of his friends.
Saddam Hussein had his chance. He was given 12 years, and 17 UN Security Council resolutions, as I told this peacenik. We tried our best to say: "Come on Saddam, be a nice boy. Give us your weapons of mass destruction, quit threatening your neighbors, and be nice." It didn't work. The last resolution said that there would be dire consequences if Saddam didn't heed it.
When Saddan didn't heed that last resolution, it came down to this: either we put some brute force behind the resolution, or we fold up the UN and never EVER put ourselves out to influence anything in the world ever again...because the world would have seen the UN and the US by extension as what the Vietcong used to refer to as a "paper tiger".
If the peaceniks had their way, any evil guy with a rock bigger than the next guy would be able to rule the roost by the force of the gun. They see the use of force to stop evil as evil itself, and they generally don't listen to arguments that are opposite.
Peaceniks are generally not able to be reasoned with, as my encounter with one of the ones here in town proved...and he was one of the more peaceful ones. Others I have encountered are all too willing to buy into almost any conspiracy theory that suggests that the United States is nearly the source of much of the evil in the world, or the center of oppression, or some other such nonsense. In their world, the US knew about what was going to happen on Sept. 11, and did nothing, that George Bush wanted Sept. 11 to happen so that John Ashcroft could institute the homeland security program and the Patriot Act, that George Bush and the oil men, and Haliburton started the Iraq war over oil, and on and on...
When you try to say that perhaps we are fighting a just war against a regime of evil that is linked to Osama bin Laden, they simply get louder and louder and insist that THEY are right.
Quite a shock coming from a bunch of people who presumably want to continue to excercise their rights of free speech, but apparently I am not entitled to the same thing...nor am I entitled to have a single opinion that differs from theirs.
Oh well.
From the Great Rocky Mountains, on this December day, I wish the men in uniform the best of everything! Keep fighting the good fight, you guys! Please know that most of the people back home here support you, and await the day when you can come back to us...and the sooner that day comes, the better!
John B.
Alrighty.
I went to lunch today at the local food bank. While there, I met this guy, who is a naturalist, and also a peacenik.
Now, I can understand not liking war. I don't like war either, and I hope that wars happen as infrequently as possible. I can even understand the anti-war types who believe that war is wrong, and we should not be engaged in it, and I can even understand those who think that the current war in Iraq is bad and that we should not be involved in it...I may disagree with these people...but I understand them, and why they think the way they do.
Then there are the peaceniks.
These are people who think that war...ANY WAR...is at least wrong. The guy I met at the food bank thought that people engaged in war were doing "demonic work" through the killing of other people.
Tell that to the US soliders who landed on the beaches of Normandy.
Of course, God doesn't like wanton killing. It's important enough to be one of the Ten Commandments, and Jesus himself asked people to "turn the other cheek". However, to say that God is totally against war ignores half of the Bible...you know, the half where God used war as a tool through the Hebrew Israelites to conquer the peoples living in the lands of Canaan. You didn't see God having any second thoughts about killing people who didn't worship him.
When I mentioned this to this peacenik, he scoffed at it. When I repeated it, he insisted that that's not how God works now, and when I told him that he was missing the point...that God himself has used war as a means to an end, that was when this peacenik said he was a "New Testament Christian".
That is to say, "I don't believe half of the Holy Book".
I told him he could not do that, theologically. There is a verse in the Bible that condemns a person from subtracting from the Bible, and similarly for anyone adding to it. This did not phase our peacenik, who said that the verse was probably in the book of Revelations, and that Revelations was propagandist, and probably was not written by John the Baptist at all...
I then practically laughed at him. Not only did he not take the Old Testament at value at all, he was quite willing to pick apart the New Testament as well. Now, this is America, and you can say and believe what you wish, but that does not necesarily make it true. In a debate, or argument, you have to be able to convince the other person that YOU are right in order to change their minds.
However, not only did I find that this person only took the parts of the Bible that backed his philosophy up, and discarded the rest, but he told me that on the issue of men killing men, he was not going to change his mind at all. I accused him of being closed-minded, and he admitted that on that issue, he is.
The problem with peaceniks, and Laramie has more than its share of them, because we are a college town...the problem with peaceniks is that they do not recognize that the world is full of evil people...and sometimes, the only way that evil people will listen to reason is if that reason is backed up by a heavily-armed man with a big gun, and the will to use it...and he is accompanied by about 500,000 of his friends.
Saddam Hussein had his chance. He was given 12 years, and 17 UN Security Council resolutions, as I told this peacenik. We tried our best to say: "Come on Saddam, be a nice boy. Give us your weapons of mass destruction, quit threatening your neighbors, and be nice." It didn't work. The last resolution said that there would be dire consequences if Saddam didn't heed it.
When Saddan didn't heed that last resolution, it came down to this: either we put some brute force behind the resolution, or we fold up the UN and never EVER put ourselves out to influence anything in the world ever again...because the world would have seen the UN and the US by extension as what the Vietcong used to refer to as a "paper tiger".
If the peaceniks had their way, any evil guy with a rock bigger than the next guy would be able to rule the roost by the force of the gun. They see the use of force to stop evil as evil itself, and they generally don't listen to arguments that are opposite.
Peaceniks are generally not able to be reasoned with, as my encounter with one of the ones here in town proved...and he was one of the more peaceful ones. Others I have encountered are all too willing to buy into almost any conspiracy theory that suggests that the United States is nearly the source of much of the evil in the world, or the center of oppression, or some other such nonsense. In their world, the US knew about what was going to happen on Sept. 11, and did nothing, that George Bush wanted Sept. 11 to happen so that John Ashcroft could institute the homeland security program and the Patriot Act, that George Bush and the oil men, and Haliburton started the Iraq war over oil, and on and on...
When you try to say that perhaps we are fighting a just war against a regime of evil that is linked to Osama bin Laden, they simply get louder and louder and insist that THEY are right.
Quite a shock coming from a bunch of people who presumably want to continue to excercise their rights of free speech, but apparently I am not entitled to the same thing...nor am I entitled to have a single opinion that differs from theirs.
Oh well.
From the Great Rocky Mountains, on this December day, I wish the men in uniform the best of everything! Keep fighting the good fight, you guys! Please know that most of the people back home here support you, and await the day when you can come back to us...and the sooner that day comes, the better!
John B.
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