Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux - 1229 Statism is Dead Part 5: Statism and Terrorism
Aired: 2008-12-08
Duration: 11:43


=== Definition Of Terrorism (04:46) ===

[00:00:00]  Statism is Dead.
[00:00:03]  Part 5.
[00:00:04]  Statism and Terrorism.
[00:00:06]  The word terrorism is notoriously hard to define for reasons which will become clear in a few minutes.
[00:00:16]  Thanks.
[00:00:18]  The word terrorism comes from Latin terror, to frighten.
[00:00:25]  A dictionary definition is 1.
[00:00:29]  The act of terrorizing, use of force or threats to demoralize, intimidate, and subjugate, especially such use as a political weapon or policy.
[00:00:43]  2. The demoralization and intimidation produced in this way.
[00:00:53]  Terrorism Law Definition The threat or actual use of violence in order to intimidate or create panic, especially when utilized as a means of attempting to influence political conduct.
[00:01:11]  Chapter 113B of Part 1 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code defines terrorism and lists the crimes associated with terrorism.
[00:01:20]  In Section 2331 of Chapter 113B, terrorism is defined as, quote, activities that involve violent or life-threatening acts that appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.
[00:01:38]  International Terrorism Edward Peck, former U.S. Chief of Mission in Iraq, under Jimmy Carter.
[00:01:49]  In 1985, when I was the Deputy Director of the Reagan White House Task Force on Terrorism, they asked us to come up with a definition of terrorism that could be used throughout the government.
[00:02:00]  We produced about six, and in each and every case they were rejected, because careful reading would indicate that our own country had been involved in some of these activities.
[00:02:13]  After the task force concluded its work, Congress got into it, and you can Google into U.S. Code Title 18, Section 2331, and read the U.S. definition of terrorism.
[00:02:23]  And one of them in here says, one of the terms, international terrorism, means activities that, I quote, appear to be intended to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.
[00:02:40]  Yes, while certainly you can think of a number of countries that have been involved in such activities, ours is one of them.
[00:02:49]  Israel is another.
[00:02:51]  And so the terrorist, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.
[00:03:00]  For instance, in 2000, Hans von Sbonneck, the head UNICEF official in Iraq from 1998 to 2000, placed the death toll from the 1990s US-led Iraq sanctions at 1.26 million, including 500,000 children under the age of five.
[00:03:22]  That would be the equivalent of almost 13 million American deaths, including 5 million helpless children.
[00:03:32]  Imagine how hard it would be for Tony Soprano to create universal and objective moral definitions condemning, racketeering, blackmail, extortion, and intimidation that did not include his own activities.
[00:03:52]  Most skeptics, particularly on the left, are deeply aware of the violence and intimidation that the U.S. government has used throughout its history.
[00:04:01]  The death count for U.S. imperialism has been conservatively estimated at almost 30 million souls.
[00:04:14]  Three times the body count of World War I. 10,000 times 9-11.
[00:04:26]  Imagine a 9/11 attack every single day, somewhere in the US, for over 25 years straight.
[00:04:36]  However, all this almost completely misses the point and true definition of terrorism.

=== The True Definition of Terrorism (06:55) ===

[00:04:47]  Thank you.
[00:04:50]  Thank you.
[00:04:50]  1. The act of terrorizing, use of force or threats to demoralize, intimidate and subjugate, especially such use as a political weapon or policy.
[00:05:01]  2. The demoralization and intimidation produced in this way.
[00:05:11]  The use or threat of violence against foreigners is only possible and profitable because of the use or threat of violence against domestic citizens, against you.
[00:05:31]  Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, and all of the war profiteers do not pay for the wars they start.
[00:05:45]  If they did, there would be no wars.
[00:05:50]  You pay for these wars.
[00:05:55]  The blood is on their hands.
[00:05:59]  The bill is in yours and your children's.
[00:06:06]  Why do you pay for the wars?
[00:06:09]  Well, for the same reason that you would pay off Tony Soprano.
[00:06:16]  Because the government, quote, uses force or threats to demoralize, intimidate, and subjugate you.
[00:06:30]  If you do not pay your taxes, your extortion, you will get a letter, and then another letter, and then a court date, and then another extortion notice for back taxes, interests, and penalties.
[00:06:52]  If you do not pay off this extortion, armed thugs in costume will come to your house and drag you off to jail.
[00:07:06]  If you resist, you will be brutally subdued.
[00:07:13]  If you raise a gun to defend yourself against this home invasion, you will be slaughtered, like livestock, in a hail of bullets.
[00:07:27]  In jail, you will be brutalized, tortured, raped for months and years.
[00:07:38]  You may be released eventually like Winston Smith, a broken and shattered soul.
[00:07:47]  This is the reality of human farming.
[00:07:54]  Violence, kidnapping, torture, and institutionalized rape rooms These are all threats designed to demoralize, intimidate, and subjugate for the political goals of regime change.
[00:08:16]  War is an effect of taxation.
[00:08:23]  Taxation is terrorism.
[00:08:27]  And that is only the beginning.
[00:08:32]  Domestic terrorism. It is always hard to truly see the terrorism involved in advancing causes we believe are good.
[00:08:43]  Do you like the idea of giving money to the poor?
[00:08:47]  Of reducing addiction to hard drugs?
[00:08:49]  Of providing health care to the needy sick and sustenance to the aged?
[00:08:56]  I think these are all goals that we would accept as good.
[00:09:01]  How are these goals pursued in a statist society?
[00:09:08]  The War on Drugs First, terrorism is used to extract money from the general population.
[00:09:18]  Next, some of that money is used to pay for additional terrorism against people suspected or accused of drug use.
[00:09:28]  Next, more money is used to pay for kidnapping and imprisonment.
[00:09:33]  The torture is shared between the guards and the fellow prisoners.
[00:09:40]  Remember, terrorism is, quote, the act of terrorizing, use of force or threats to demoralize, intimidate, and subjugate, especially such use as a political weapon or policy.
[00:09:58]  Every policy the government has is a political policy.
[00:10:06]  The only fundamental weapon any government has is the legal initiation of the use of force.
[00:10:18]  The initiation of violence in order to achieve a political policy is terrorism.
[00:10:29]  The war on drugs is a political policy which is entirely dependent upon the initiation of violence.
[00:10:39]  Public school education is a political policy which is entirely dependent upon the initiation of violence.
[00:10:50]  The welfare state is a political policy which is entirely dependent upon the initiation of violence.
[00:11:01]  Every goal the government pursues is a political policy which is entirely dependent upon the initiation of violence.
[00:11:17]  This is why terrorism is so impossible to define.
[00:11:24]  Statism is terrorism.
[00:11:30]  We are educated by terrorists.
[00:11:35]  We are controlled, kidnapped, imprisoned, and bribed by terrorists.