Arbitrary Authority

"This freedom from absolute, arbitrary power, is so necessary to, and closely joined with a man’s preservation, that he cannot part with it..."

It goes something like this:

Accuser: “You did something to me!”
Accused: “No, I didn’t. I wasn’t even there.”
Accuser: “Well, I feel you did. Arbitrary Authority, do something!”
Arbitrary Authority: “Accused, I don’t like your politics, so you must have done the thing.”
Accused: “Nope. Didn’t do it. I can prove it. Due process!”
Arbitrary Authority: “Crap. That again? Well, if we have to – but I’m telling you, you are guilty.”
Accused: “Cool your jets, AA. Let’s see what the Investigator and the Courts have to say first, how about it?”
Investigator: “Yep. Here’s the evidence. No way he is guilty.”
Courts: “We agree. He’s cleared. Not just cleared, but free as a bird cleared.”
Accuser: “Well, somebody did something to me.”
Arbitrary Authority: “That’s OK. We’re going to punish the Accused anyway because we feel your pain. Even if he didn’t do it, society needs to be taught a lesson. It’s about the greater good, right? We don’t care about that due process thing. Like beauty, innocence is in the eye of the beholder.”
Accused: “Wait. What?”

This is happening. This is is the common outcome used to support the “rape culture” meme on college campuses. First and fanned by a bogus Rolling Stone article, all the fraternities at the University of Virginia were subjected to immediate punishment BEFORE the evidence and verdict of innocence was in – and yet the University administration enforced the punishment.

But it isn’t just for colleges. There have been several reports over the last few years where men who have been proven by DNA testing to have no biological connection with children and yet ordered to pay child support.

Remember when John Roberts chose to rewrite a tax into a “fee” to prevent O-Care from being unconstitutional?

Good times.

But this illogic and confusion is exactly what the progressive left wants – and what they consistently do – “Forget what we said”, they say. “Give us what we want today!” they cry. No matter what, the “want” will change tomorrow. It always does.

In Chapter IV, Section 23 of John Locke’s “Second Treatise of Civil Government”, he writes :

“This freedom from absolute, arbitrary power, is so necessary to, and closely joined with a man’s preservation, that he cannot part with it, but by what forfeits his preservation and life together: for a man, not having the power of his own life, cannot, by compact, or his own consent, enslave himself to any one, nor put himself under the absolute, arbitrary power of another, to take away his life, when he pleases.”

America has long held sacred the Due Process clause of the Constitution and the concept that all accused are innocent until proven guilty. These concepts prevent any authority from applying, enforcing and/or judging guilt or innocence via arbitrary and capricious application of the law.

Postmodernism is all fun and games until innocence is a matter of opinion and not based on finding of fact. The State, acting as an arbitrary authority, is now essentially saying, “Well sure, either we don’t have the evidence to prove you are guilty but we know your type. If you didn’t do it, we know you wanted to. So innocent or not, we’ll just punish you anyway. Why take the chance?”

• Six months on, mounted Border Patrol Agents are still under “investigation” for “whipping” illegal immigrants – even though that allegation was debunked literally minutes after it was made.

• J6 “defendants” are suffering delayed justice, some still jailed over a year without their constitutional right to a fair trial denied. Some are charged with ridiculous “crimes”.

• Look at what they did to candidate (and then president) Trump. Lying and spying – using the legal system to essentially extort people into pleading to something to make it stop. Using the unlimited resources and power of government to go after political enemies. Essentially using your taxes to fund attacks on your liberty.

Does any of this make sense?

The process is the punishment – even for the clearly innocent. It is like traversing the Nine Circles of Hell with Dante.

If there is no objective standard, there can be no standard at all. When any authority is allowed to make it up as we go along, it no longer matters who is guilty or innocent – it only matters who is in charge. That is what Locke was saying – people can never be free if the rules can be changed on a whim by any authority because that eliminates the possibility of the individual to control their own life.

If none of this makes sense, it is because it isn’t supposed to make sense. That’s the plan. That is why it is both arbitrary and capricious.

But nature abhors absurdity as much as it does a vacuum. As Albert Camus said:

“‘Everything is permitted’ does not mean that nothing is forbidden.”