Rational Order & Rebellion
“Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, so that nothing but bubbles of bliss can be seen on the surface; give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species, and even then out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick. He would even risk his cakes and would deliberately desire the most fatal rubbish, the most uneconomical absurdity, simply to introduce into all this positive good sense his fatal fantastic element. …simply in order to prove to himself that men still are men and not the keys of a piano.
…Even if man really were nothing but a piano-key, even if this were proved to him by natural science and mathematics, even then he would not become reasonable, but would purposely do something perverse out of simple ingratitude, simply to gain his point. And if he does not find means he will contrive destruction and chaos, will contrive sufferings of all sorts, only to gain his point! He will launch a curse upon the world, and as only man can curse, may be by his curse alone he will attain his object — that is, convince himself that he is a man and not a piano-key! If you say that all this, too, can be calculated and tabulated — chaos and darkness and curses, so that the mere possibility of calculating it all beforehand would stop it all, and reason would reassert itself, then man would purposely go mad in order to be rid of reason and gain his point!
…Good heavens, gentlemen, what sort of free will is left when we come to tabulation and arithmetic, when it will all be a case of twice two make four? Twice two makes four without my will. As if free will meant that!”
One must wonder why Lucifer, the highest and most blessed angel, ever decided to rebel against God. Was it simply out of envy and a lust for power? I think not. I think the story of the fall of angels represents a reality we ourselves must contend with. As Dostoyevsky points out, you can give a man everything he desires but, in the end, he will cast it all aside simply to prove to himself that he can. I believe that’s precisely what Lucifer was attempting when he raised an army against his creator. He had almost everything one could desire – only his freedom was missing. As powerful as he was, Lucifer still lived under the rule of another. He was privileged. He was well-treated and respected. He may even have been happy – but he was not free.
Freedom is a unique ambition in the modern world. For, like the eternal paradise of heaven, we as humans in the first world have more than could ever have been imagined by our ancestors. We are safe, well-fed, comfortable, and live peacefully. Why would anyone rebel against such rational order? The reason for why man rebels is the same reason for why all totalitarian utopias are only but a mere fiction.
When the various scientists of social order construct their formulations, they can only rely on the anticipated behavior shown through collective statistical analysis. This is why the state despises the individual; because he cannot be accounted for. Assimilation and collectivization are key components of all authoritarian regimes. Mankind is not rational. As a species, we can be herded, but the desires and impulses of the individual cannot be predicted.
“As a single atom man is an enigma: as a whole he is a mathematical problem. As an individual he is a free agent, as a species the offspring of necessity.”
But we must not reserve our criticism strictly for the tyrants – libertarians and anarchists are also confused on this matter. For they believe that mankind rebels against tyranny merely as an attempt to be free from their rule, but we are ruled by more than just kings, presidents, and dictators. We are under the constant oppression of social norms, values, and economic forces. We all live under a system and whether that system alleges to support freedom or not, it remains a constrictive apparatus. Take the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP), for instance. Though its proponents speak highly of liberty, they too desire a system with its own set of rules and boundaries. It’s believed that because their system has no rulers, there will be freedom, and hence, no rebellion. What little they know about the race of men.
Freedom is realized and experienced only within rebellion. Once achieved, order must again be imposed. Freedom, therefore, only comes into existence when a man decides to reject the order imposed on him, and make his own path, no matter how destructive or irrational. Even if the proposed system provides everything one could possibly desire, the individual will still recognize that he is contained within its guarded fences, and that to be truly free, he must rebel against it.
There’s something about being predictable that upsets our psyche; we all feel it. When we realize we’re being played and that our actions have been determined before we act them out, some part of us becomes disgusted. We are highly-sensitive to any infringements against our freedom of will. Whether by a scientist that rejects the concept, a tyrant that overrules it, or by a system that manipulates it – once we experience the sensation of a loss of free will, rebellion is sure to follow.
But what point am I making by all of this? Afterall, in order to live at all we must fall under some sort of agreed-upon system and social order – must we always rebel against it? Is it not true that some order is better than none at all; that some systems are preferable to others; that a proper system can produce many beneficial outcomes? Yes – it is all true. The point to be made is that it matters not what system you propose; rational order tyrannizes over man’s irrational soul and rebellion will be present under any system. If rebels are found in heaven itself, ruled by an order so transcendent that it can’t even reside in this earthly realm, who among us would be so foolish as to think they have the solution to mankind’s problem of freedom?
What does this mean for us – the Sons of Liberty? Given this understanding, we must realize that our ambition is not revolution, abolition, or some alternate form of governance. Our ambition is solely focused on freedom itself. This is why SOL is an organization of resistance, not revolution. Freedom is only attained through resistance. How the masses choose to organize themselves will not solve the problem of freedom – there will always be a force that drives man to push back. Today, we are those men. The tyranny we face is our greatest transgressor. But SOL makes no attempt to provide the world with an overarching solution. We aren’t so arrogant as to believe that we have the answers for everyone else. We offer no excuses, no arguments, no evidence, no theories, no philosophies. We have made a choice to be free and we will have it, at any and all costs.
Nil Desperandum.
