Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.

Incidentally, Dale was absolutely correct in what he said about Dave Schuler of “The Glittering Eye”. Democracy is one of the worst protections of individual liberties. As we have all heard, democracy is two wolves and a sheep making dinner plans.

I don’t know Dave Schuler, but I suspect that he would say that his use of the phrase liberal democracy somehow keeps Dale’s and McQ’s criticisms from being germane. But the principles and laws that are supposed to keep our rights inalienable (even in a democratic society) are violated by our own government. So, now what? As far as I am concerned, Schuler has basically re-stated the original question without answering it - and carried it to his own blog for a similar discussion.

Tyler Cowen and Radley Balko have also discussed the issue in recent weeks, but there too it is a discussion that has more to do with raising an army than with an individual who is facing oppression.

Billy Beck eventually weighed in at QandO, and I was looking forward to his two cents - mostly because I was originally considering the question from a personal standpoint, and I suspected he would as well. (If you don't know Billy Beck, you should check out his blog. I like him, but I can't promise you will. I think I can promise that you will find him very interesting.)

When I emailed Henke on the subject, I was thinking about the broader principles involved in violence toward agents of the state when an individual’s rights and freedoms are encroached upon unjustly – something that would apply to people around the world, under any type of government, at a personal level. No matter how oppressive a regime, there are situations where citizens are face-to-face with agents of the state, and are in a position to submit or fight. How far will they be pushed? It of course depends on how much freedom they are accustomed to.

I hadn’t meant to test the waters of armed rebellion – I am well aware of the non-violent channels available to me if I don’t like the seat belt law or the income tax, and I have no desire to try to raise an army anyway. Odds are about zero that there will be any armed insurrection of Americans civilians against the police and military, or of any kind of armed civil war… especially in my lifetime.

And while I hope it never comes about, I am sure there is a much greater chance that someday I will have to decide how to respond to an agent of the state who is directly and personally depriving me of some of my rights and freedoms. That’s closer to the question I have been pondering. I don't know what Thomas Jefferson would do. But I think it is good to give it thought.

p.s. - (The podcast also includes a great story about Mike Wallace and a USMC Colonel that relates very well to the furor over photographer Joao Silva.)

p.p.s. - I was surprised that in the whole extended conversation, there was no mention of the boiling frog or Pastor Martin Niemöller.