I get questions

Here’s a special edition of the Scuttlebutt because I get questions. Some times, those questions are good enough, and I think my answer is definitive enough, to post here as well as where I answered the question (Usually Quora)

What steps can civilians take to address dissatisfaction with military actions or government decisions, according to those who have served? That was the Question of the hour.

And here is my answer:

Write your congress-critter, vote, speak of what you believe is right. Do it on the various social media platforms, in the public square, where ever you will, but do it peacefully, do not disturb commerce, and accept that you’re just as likely to be told “fuck off you cunt” as to be told “RIGHT ON.” Both of those are just as viable as your opinion.

You can perform “Civil Disobedience.” AND, understand that that means you can be arrested and get to spend jail time. Walk in with that knowledge in the forefront of your mind. Gandhi, MLK… Hell, let’s go back to Martin Luther himself, all walked in with the knowledge that they can and probably will be arrested, and that’s THE POINT.

Being arrested, charged, doing time, whether it’s an hour, a day, or ten years, because you believe something is so wrong that you’re willing to go to jail over it, is how “Civil Disobedience” works. You make your point by showing what you are willing to do to stop it.

Civil Disobedience is NOT performance art and then wining like a little bitch when the po-po come to put the habius grabus on your ass. You want to change minds, you “yes sir, no sir, here are my wrists sir” yourself to death in the face of the cops, and in front of the cameras. You show that you are the reasonable ones, and the state is unreasonable. That gets attention, that changes minds.

What you do not do, is the current bullshit riots and then scream like a little girl when after burning down peoples property, maybe killing some poor bastard who’s only sins were having a different color skin than you and being in the wrong area, Officer Friendly becomes Officer Dickhead, and gives you a hickory shampoo, or makes you do the dance of 5000 volts on the end of the wires from his Taser. You then crossed the line.

Civil disobedience most emphatically does not involve violence against anything. Violence is called: riot, or insurrection. It’s what you do when you want to overthrow a government. If you do that, not only will you not win people over to your cause, you will be asking for the full weight of government force to descend on your ass like a ton of bricks dropped from orbit. And that is what you SHOULD get.

If you want to play insurrection games, you are no longer a “civilian” you have just made yourself a “revolutionary,” an “insurgent,” a “non-uniformed combatant.” As such, you don’t get the gentile persuasion of some cop putting hand-cuffs on you, you’re a combatant now baby, the game is different, and you signed up for pledging “your life, your fortune, and your sacred honor” to your cause. You don’t see Nathan Hale’s quote as “You punk ass bitches have no right to arrest me!” He knew what he was signing on for. You want to play that game, fine. Your right to do so. And, you just entered a very different world, with different rules of engagement, and incidentally probably declared me your mortal enemy.

Are there conditions that I would become an insurgent? Oh, most certainly.

Are there situations, hypothetically, where I would take up arms against the government? Yes.

And, if the sorts of events happened that would drive me to that point, I would believe that the government of my country is itself the enemy of the constitution, and that I have no recourse left but to recognize that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” And in believing such, I would understand that I have joined a war.

If you go there though, you simply must understand that you’re starting a revolution. Things like “equal rights under the law,” “probable cause,” “illegal search and seizure,” “Right to a speedy trial,” and all the rest of the protections accorded to civilians are not yours any longer. You’ve stepped over into the realm of the military, and asked to play by our rules. You’ve decided to play (as George Rape Rape Martin put it) the Game of Thrones. You either win, or you die.

Decide wisely which one of the games you want to play: Civil Protestor, or Revolutionary. One of them has a check valve attached, you can’t go backwards and change to the other rule set. If you can’t get enough of the people on your side when you start the war, you will, and should: lose, and die.

Very Respectfully submitted for your approval,

William Lehman