Arthur Silber: The Arrogance and Evil of Brute Power: Hell Beckons

August 20th, 2005

When the decision was announced, I had quite a lot to say about the Kelo case. I concluded my discussion this way:

Not only would the Founders not “have intended this perverse result.” America today is nothing like the miraculous experiment they began over two centuries ago, and they would no longer even recognize it.

And the Supreme Court has helped to kill it even more with this decision. The state can now do with you and with any aspect of your life whatever it wants. You can appeal for justice, you can cite what your rights indisputably are and should be, and none of it matters. Given the ongoing assault on individual rights undertaken by the Bush administration—and see this essay for one particularly significant manifestation of that assault—the end is now clear and unavoidable, unless we finally decide to change our course. When and precisely how we reach that destination is only a matter of time, and details. The principles have been set, and time is running out.

The state is all, and it will have its way. The individual is of no significance whatsoever. You are a nonentity worthy of no consideration at all, and deserving of no justice. You no longer exist in any way that allows you to have a life that is worth living, or that is genuinely meaningful. You now live almost entirely by permission.

Welcome to hell.