Sunday, January 11, 2009

300 in the 21st Century

The story of the battle of Thermopylae is relatively well known history, and this came to mind today as I sat contemplating the comment exchange appended to a Samizdata post of Perry de Havilland’s titled The tower struck by lightning, which I was drawn to after reading Billy Beck’s post It Really Is What It Is.

The comments which brought to mind the title which I gave this post were exchanged between Billy Beck and Perry de Havilland, and are as follows.

“Then win it back, or do you think that the other side is forever?

{cold stare} It’s close enough, mate, for the purposes of my life, which is all that I’ve ever been interested in.

“I find such a lack of fight surprising.”

Perry… if there was a “fight”, I would be ass-deep in it and right shoulder-to-shoulder with you. What we’re doing is not a fight. Not any more. Matters are already past anything we can do in blogs, now, and they will be for a long time to come. You can doubt me if you want, but you’ll see.

We’re going to go all the way through this—the whole bloody lesson-plan that should have been the overweening moral of the twentieth century—again. Don’t you see it? The biggest and last domino is falling right now in front of your eyes. This is going to be an example to the whole world, but here’s the thing: “the whole world” is a lot to teach by example. The destruction of America might live up to it, but it’s going to take a while.

And after that, there is no telling how long people will have to live in the greyed shadows of what used to be, before they remember what that was, if they ever do.

We were really lucky in some ways, Perry, although cursed in others: as a long-range matter of history and the serendipitous time of our being, we saw what was possible.

That’s really all there was to it, and I am beginning to find the resolve of facing facts strangely calming.

And this.

“Sorry Billy but just because you cannot see it does not means it ain’t happening.”

Excuse me, but what the hell are you talking about, Perry?

“With all due respect I have little time for anyone who has given up and is unwilling to fight on.”

Look: with all due respect—and I mean that—I am not about to take lectures on giving up from people who haven’t even started yet. I repeat: what we do in blogs is inconsequential, and if you don’t think so, then I give you this coming January 20 as evidence.

When you hear of a “fight”, do let me know and I’ll be there.

More specifically, I draw your attention to two points Billy Beck makes in the comment exchanges noted above.  Point one.

What we’re doing is not a fight. Not any more. Matters are already past anything we can do in blogs, now, and they will be for a long time to come. You can doubt me if you want, but you’ll see.

Point two.

I repeat: what we do in blogs is inconsequential, and if you don’t think so, then I give you this coming January 20 as evidence.

The fight referenced to in the above posts, and comments gleaned from said posts, is the fight for individual liberty and the enemy is statism and ever increasing State power.  Those of us who recognize ourselves as individuals, know the individuals are losing.

Think about points one and two, as articulated by Billy Beck and noted above.  I am under no delusion that what I post here, which is read by maybe 500 or 600 individuals daily, has had any impact on the matters at hand.  Yes, my blog posts, and other individuals’ blog posts, could be considered as contributions to the “fight” referenced, but, like the Spartan 300, our mission, if it can even be recognized as such, is, and has been, a suicide mission.  What I post, what Billy Beck posts, what Samizdata posters post, are inconsequential pin pricks which do not even register on the behemoth which is the State, nor its collective supporters.  Our postings are like the dust mites accumulating in your bed.

No monuments will be erected to those individuals who blog for individual freedom.  In fact, we will be fortunate to remembered digitally as a string of 0s and 1s cached by Google.

Does my thinking appear defeatist?  It is not.  My thinking is clear and rational, fully recognizing the facts surrounding the alleged “fight.”  Am I giving up the “fight?”  Hardly.  I fully recognize that the “fight” cannot be won collectively in the blogosphere, and the only “fight” I will be able to fight will be my individual fight for liberty.

Will there be an actual fight against the collective State where blood is shed and lives extinquished?  There may very well be such a fight in the future, and if there is, I shall stand shoulder to shoulder with men such as Billy, Perry, and others (and you “others” know who you are).  Until that reality appears, though, I shall not be deluded that my blog, or any other blog for that matter, is more than a jousting at windmills.

Posted by John Venlet on 01/11 at 10:17 AM
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