LOANING ONE’S VIOLENCE TO THE STATE (oldie but goodie) —“”To the State: If for

LOANING ONE’S VIOLENCE TO THE STATE

(oldie but goodie)

—“”To the State:

If for a moment, you forget that you are dispensing my violence on my behalf;

and you seek to treat me not as a citizen who bestows upon you my violence, to be justly administered, but a subject who must obey rules;

and if you believe and act as though the law not as a convenient tool for the resolution of differences between peers, but a scripture that I must obey as a subject;

then it is not only my right, but my duty to myself and others, to take back from you my borrowed violence, and to remind you if I can, and teach you if I must, that the source of that violence you dispense is the citizenry.

If I must remind the state, then I hope it is by this simple, gentle oratory. But if that will not suffice, I will not resort to the display of petty personal violence, nor to the disorder of rabble and protest. Because that is not the capacity of violence that I gave to the state.

I will instead raise an army and show you what violence it is that I do restrain, so that you are once again reminded, that you are an actor on my behalf, and on behalf of my fellow citizens – and nothing more.

And if you doubt for a moment that I can do such a thing, I will be only so happy to prove it to you, by starting in this very room, on this very day, if necessary.””—

Cry not havoc but order. And bring forth the men of war.