Might Makes Truth?

Larken Rose

Home of the brave?

May 12, 2008 - I continue to be stunned by how many people--not just in government, and not just in the general public, but even those in the "pro-freedom movement"--seem to subscribe to one of the most idiotic logical fallacies imaginable: the idea that HURTING people alters what is true. Of course, when it's put that way, no one would say they believe in such a thing, but their own comments tell a different story.

"How come you still talk about the 861 issue, when you went to jail?"

What an odd question. It's a little like saying, "How can you still maintain your beliefs after I punched you in the nose?" Granted, if I had been claiming that saying "861" will magically make the IRS leave you alone--something I have never said--then my own imprisonment would be a good refutation of that claim. However, I spent years saying the exact opposite: "Don't do what I'm doing; knowing what is true will NOT, in and of itself, protect you from thieves." As Voltaire said, it's dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

Those who are (despite the abundance of misinformation out there) actually familiar with what happened at my trial, and all my meetings with the IRS before that, know that substantively refuting my conclusions was never the agenda of the feds. Their agenda was, as it is with many people: baselessly assert that the person's conclusions are "frivolous," and then do whatever is necessary (legal or not) to censor, demonize, or otherwise harm that person, in an effort to make him shut up, and to scare other people away.

I can completely sympathize with people who don't dare to take on the IRS, in light of what they've done to many who have tried. What I can't understand, because it's so utterly irrational, is how some people decide what is TRUE based upon whether the federal government has harmed someone or not. Does the sun really go around the earth, because Galileo was imprisoned for saying otherwise?

I also sympathize with those who desperately want some procedural means of making the IRS obey the law. However, I have never claimed to have any such trick (quite the opposite), and I have never seen anyone else who has devised such a trick (notwithstanding the many who CLAIM to have such a magic solution). Believe me, if I thought there was a sure-fire procedural way to make the IRS obey the law, I'd be telling everyone about it.

I sympathize a little with those seeking a legal argument "that works"--in other words, one that makes the IRS say, "Golly gee, you're right, we'll leave you alone now." However, I can't imagine why anyone at this point thinks that such a thing could possibly exist, when the IRS and DOJ have made it abundantly clear that they don't CARE what the law says, and that they will do anything to preserve their power. That is why my focus has always been on spreading the truth, until it is louder than the lie, and the fraud collapses under its own weight. Until then, I see no procedural way to achieve justice.

Speaking of which, I still hear people criticizing me for having any faith that the courts would provide justice. I don't now, and I didn't before. I had no hope at all that the government or the courts would do the right thing, but I had a shred of hope that the American PEOPLE, represented by the jury, might do the right thing. (I've since lost much hope in that, either, though there have been a few cases--Cryer, Banister, Kuglin, Harrell, etc.--where juries did the right thing.)

If you ask me, it's important to know what is TRUE, and to SAY what is true, even if people in power don't like it, even if acting on the truth would be dangerous, even if speaking the truth brings insult, ridicule and threats upon you. If you don't want to act on the truth, that's understandable. If you keep filing tax returns, reporting income you think isn't really taxable, to save your own hide, that's understandable. But if you no longer dare to speak the truth, that's pretty sad. And if you're to the point where you don't even want to KNOW what is true if it's dangerous--if you're one of those who says, "I don't want to know what he has to say, because he went to prison"--well, then, you're a tyrant's dream come true.

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