Sheepish de-tyrannization

Tyranny, unrelenting plague it is, will not go away. Period. Guaranteed. It will, of course, like all viruses, plagues, epi- and pandemics, be periodically beaten down, limited or otherwise marginalized. Temporarily, at least. Indeed, Jefferson’s admonition, to water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants and (unfortunately) patriots, wasn’t merely a soundbyte. It was one of the clearest and most concise warnings to future generations ever uttered by a politician: Tyranny never dies.

Unfortunately, these hard-won victories of liberation—our American revolution being but one of thousands of other less well known de-tyrannization campaigns waged across the millennia by men and women sick to death of their tyrants—are immediately, ironically, and invariably co-opted by individuals and groups who seek to force their own tyrannical agendas down the throats of the very folks whose blood, sweat and tears put the new tyrants into their positions of power in the first place.

Yes, sadly, we sheep always seem to look not to the shepherds but to the wolves (usually wrapped in the freshly skinned hides of innocent lambs) after the battles of liberation are won. And, of course, these wolves immediately set about organizing, tagging, and, most importantly, disarming their sheep.

Why? For future consumption, of course. After all, no wolf in his right mind wants to raid a flock of sheep and suddenly hear the metallic chorus of bullets clacking into their chambers, stare down the barrel of millions of guns and into the grinning faces of their newly liberated lamb chops.