Libertas Ad Vox Populi, Usque Ad Mortem!

"The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it; and a state which postpones the interests of their mental expansion and elevation, to a little more of administrative skill, or of that semblance of it which practice gives, in the details of business; a State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes – will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished; and that the perfection of machinery to which it has sacrificed everything, will in the end avail it nothing, for want of the vital power which, in order that the Machine might work more smoothly, it has preferred to banish.”~ John Stuart Mill


The pictures below are images I love - images of Law Enforcement carrying out what is inarguably a necessary function - protestors cannot jump the police barricade, if you do it's very obvious you want to get arrested, a common goal of many protestors (something less inspired individuals really never understand I suppose).

These images don't try to make the US look like a police state, or something fanciful and stupid like that. It's quite clear that's not what's going on. In fact in my personal opinion a police state is far less insidious, is far less manipulative than the Republic in which we currently live.

These images remind you that in the simple geometry of governance, there is but one variable which is constant - power. These images show you where the real power is, and where the illusory power is. JS Mill called the state "a machine."

Indeed, Rarely do we see its gears and cogs, its size is so vast it goes unnoticed by the myopic majority. Remember that not only does political power grow from the barrel of a gun, or the restraint of plastic zip-tie handcuffs. It grows as a fungi in darkness, hidden from view except when we choose to shine ever so discordent a beam of light upon it.

Remember the machinery of the state, and remember it is not controlled by any individual or group.

Everyone is fascinated by magical illusions, but knowing the gimmick, as magicians refer to their secret, tends to ruin the effect.

The state indeed "dwarfs its men." But is this a magic trick whose secret is unknown?

I think not.

Libertas Ad Vox Populi, Usque Ad Mortem.