Circles and Squares

Rethinking the second amendment

Emanuel Pastreich

President (acting)

USPROVGOV

October 5, 2022

As we struggle to bring Americans together from across the political spectrum, to form substantial and committed institutions that will support the battle for freedom and equality, the struggle against slavery and corporate governance by the billionaires, the Second Amendment of the Constitution, the right to bear arms, keeps coming up as a point of contention, of division, in our discussions.

Although there are real differences of opinion, some based on profound philosophical divergences, the crux of the issue has been intentionally obscured by the corporate powers who have manipulated the public for their own benefit and who block any serious debate about the nature of this amendment to the Constitution from seeing the light of day.

We are drowned in incomplete arguments on all sides about the Second amendment that mislead us and that confuse us.

On the one hand, we have those (largely, but not exclusively, people we call progressives) who point to the horrific levels of gun violence in the United States, and who compare the number of gun deaths in the United States with those in just about any other country, thus demonstrating that the United States has a run-away problem with guns. They then suggest that this problem originates with the Second Amendment which the conservatives have misinterpreted as giving the citizen a carte blanche to possess weapons and to use them.

This side of the debate advocates strict regulations on the possession of guns as Federal policy as the best way to end this nightmare.

On the other hand, we have those, for the most referred to as conservatives, who hold that citizens have the right to bear arms as guaranteed by the Constitution, and who hold that 1) if firearms are made illegal then only criminals will have firearms; 2) arming of the citizens is necessary to resist the tyranny of the government.

Both sides of this argument have been distorted and misused by powerful corporate interests who control the message that is put out in the media and who create needless conflicts and unnecessary misunderstandings as part of their strategy of confusion.

That is no surprise. The corporate sponsors of these defending the right of the citizens to bear arms and of those calling for its restriction have their own agendas.

Part of that agenda is forcing citizens to support either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party in order to move forward. This intentional misdirection of political power towards the whores of the corporations is a big business in itself. But corporations have other reasons for wanting to create this conflict, and to encourage it, as I will detail below.

Let me also tell you how I feel about the Second Amendment. I felt that the unlimited sales of firearms and the culture of guns had created untold tragedy in the United States and that the mindless loyalty of certain Americans to the broad interpretation of the Second Amendment was responsible for this sad state of affairs. I supported gun control measures and also wanted to end of the glorification of gun culture (which I still do).

The growing institutional and political chaos that I witnessed in the United States over the last twenty years, however, which has taken an ominous turn for the worse over the last two years, led me to reconsider the Second Amendment. I came to realize that the steady state of accountable governance in the United States was far from certain and that the tyranny that the founders of the United States feared is now knocking at the door.    

It is necessary to have local militias in place to defend us against a rotten Federal Government possessed by the globalists, the minutemen of our age. The Federal Government that played a vital role in the fight against slavery under Lincoln, in the fight against fascism under Roosevelt, and in the fight against racial discrimination under Truman and Kennedy has vanished and in its place stands a lumbering monster, supported by multinational investment banks, military contractors, real estate speculators, and energy monopolies, a monster that is leading us to our doom.

There are quite a few good people still left in that Federal Government, but the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and local and state police have been deeply corrupted as the institutions of the United States decayed following the 9.11 incident, COVID19, and other on-going crimes.

Let us read the Second Amendment, and read it carefully. None of those talking heads, branded “progressive” or “conservative,” actually does so.

I am not reading the Second Amendment for you because I assume it is sacred, or because I assume the Constitution is perfect.

Rather, just as was the case in 1860, it is critical in this moment of chaos that we start from our philosophical and moral foundations. The Constitution forms common ground and it defines what is, and what is not, government. Interpreting the Constitution in a manner that addresses the current crisis is the best way to form consensus. It does not mean that we cannot modify the Constitution, or the Second Amendment, in the future.

“A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Like psalms, so much meaning is compressed in this short phrase.

The emphasis of the passage is not on the right of anyone to own any weapon and shoot it off at will for his or her pleasure. The right of the citizen to “keep and bear,” to own and to employ, arms is protected in that it is related to a larger, more critical, project.

The violence porn, gun worship, and the horrific promotion of violence in the media that has encouraged such broad ownership and use of firearms is not a product of the second amendment. It is a byproduct of the military industrial complex and the cult of war promoted in a decadent empire.

The fortunes made by the gun manufactures who sprinkle money on the National Rifle Association to promote a reckless vision of the American dream are the result of the pursuit of profit at the expense of the citizen.

Let us read that text again.

“A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

The first part is clearly the primary clause that necessitates the right to keep and bear arms mentioned in the second part.

“A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state” resonates for us in this age of chaos.

There are three elements missing in the United States of America today that are mentioned therein. Let us consider each one.

The first is “a well-regulated militia.”  

The current militia, the military, is an unregulated monster that has merged with criminal forces around the world and has devolved into a mercenary power which strives to extract wealth for the rich and powerful through the use of force, and to generate revenue through the sale of weapons, the enforcement of sanctions, and other services for pay.

Such a “militia” is not well regulated; it is suicidal.

The second word is “security.” The current military, industrial, financial, intelligence, medical, trade complex has nothing to do with security for the citizens of our nation. Of course there are groups in the military who are serious about security, who remain loyal to the Constitution and to the people of our nation. But they are not the dominant force.

We need a system for national and regional security that is focused on real security, not threats made up for profit. If we do not have such a system, then the current military is a clear and present danger in that it grants multinational criminal operations access to the full range of weapons, starting with mass psychological manipulation, while the citizens are left unarmed.

The third phrase is “a free state.”

It would be hard to call the current government of the United States, a toy of multinational corporations and billionaires, a “free state.” For that reason alone, addressing the question of who will have the right to bear arms is pressing.

We are looking at a collapsing empire with a military out of control. There is no republic left—although one could be established again.

To promote guns and the culture of guns for profit, either profits for gun manufacturers or for police and private security corporations, is horrible and must be stopped.

On the other hand, to leave the citizens unarmed if they face a predatory Federal government is also unacceptable.

The stress in the second amendment falls on keeping the military accountable to the people, and not on the sale of weapons to citizens for profit.

Thus, our primary concern must be with getting back to a democratic, participatory, and transparent system for security that includes the citizens and that assures that a tyranny cannot emerge from the military or from the police, one taken over by private interests, one that uses the state’s weapons to oppress the citizens of the nation, the citizens with whom sovereignty rests.

The answer is to end the mercenary military.

We should not be so naïve as to think that eternal peace is possible. Militias and police are necessary. But standing armies that are not composed of the citizens doing their service, but of men and women who are paid to fight, forced to fight to survive economically, who report to generals who then report to corporate CEOs, such armies are threat to us all.

We must create an accountable military that is linked to us, the citizens, at the local level. If the government is to exercise deadly force, then citizens must know what those weapons are and how they are used.

If deadly force is used, it should be used by trained citizens who are trusted by their neighbors, and not by strangers who are distant from us.

But what if there is a war? You ask.

First, note that the United States is full of weapons at every level that are held in a non-transparent manner by government agencies whose actions are classified so as to make them unaccountable.

That unaccountable military and police are already at war with us.

The next war may not be like the wars we prepared for. It may be a world war, or a civil war, or something hybrid, a matching of likes with likes around the world.

That could mean that you, the citizen, must be armed and ready to defend yourself.

I think that it was such a crisis that the founding fathers imagined back then. They did not adhere to the cult of guns, the sick culture that surrounds weapons today. But they knew that no political system will be stable forever and it is a mistake to have the state in control of all forms of deadly force.

It is also clear that many of the efforts to promote gun control in recent days are fundamentally different from what came before.

Today much of gun control legislation is not about reducing the deaths from gun violence, but rather about extending the authority of the Federal government to do whatever it pleases to citizens without accountability. I watched, sadly, this shift over the last twenty years.

We need to simultaneously combat the sick culture of guns and to reduce the number of guns on the street while at the same time raising the understanding of weapons on the part of citizens, and creating a military that is participatory and that is run by citizens, one committed to the long-term interests of our nation. We need citizens who can handle weapons and who can participate in the local militia while condemning the cult of guns, while being committed to peace.

There will be no room for military contractors, for investment banks, or for the promoters of the cult of guns in such a vision for our country.

UNITED STATES PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

URGENT DIRECTIVE

ORGANIZE YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD AS A SUSTAINABLE AND SAFE COMMUNITY THAT WILL SERVE AS THE FOUNDATION FOR A NEW NATION IN RESPONSE TO THE CURRENT ASSAULT

OCTOBER 3, 2022

The decision of the Russian Federation to annex the Dombas region of the Ukraine, combined with the decision of the Ukraine to apply for membership in NATO, and for elements in the United Nations and other intergovernmental organizations to support this haphazard, dangerous and thoughtless action, has brought us to the edge of nuclear war, or at least that it’s the impression we are given.

We will not know the true story for decades. And although we are being fed multiple false, or incomplete, narratives, it is entirely possible that the globalists intend to use the threat of nuclear war as a means to enforce a new form of totalitarian governance everywhere that goes far beyond the COVID19 reign of terror. 

They may be cooperating with those who are branded as nationalists, or branded anti-globalists, cardboard messiahs like Trump or Putin, all working together to create a world on the edge, a world where anything goes.

Whatever performance the globalists and nationalists may put on to frighten us, the corporations and militaries around the world are playing footsie with each other: enemies at one level, silent partners at another.

They all know that once Russia and NATO move to a war economy, and a war command structure, the United States, and most every nation, will be drawn in and everything will be shut down.

At the same, Putin and Biden may be playing a game, and maybe their friends at the World Economic Forum told them that everything is under control. But once the military command system is put into play, it works like clockwork. Nuclear war may come in a few hours, even if the masterminds never intended it.

It may be a matter of days, weeks or months, but the system for governance, logistics, transportation, food and energy supplies, information (journalism) and education, medical treatment, even housing and clothing, will break down.    

The last seventy years of easy living, of dependency on a money economy, of reliance on the Federal government and multinational corporations, has left most of us without the ability to produce food, clothing, furniture, or much of anything at all, on our own.

The current collapse, with or without world war, will be far worse than the fall of the Soviet Union.

Trust no one, but start to build relations of profound trust. Start with your family, extend a hand to your neighbors, and reach out bravely to like-minded people across the nation.

First and foremost, we must abandon all the false narratives about cardboard messiahs saving us that the corporate media has planted in our heads—and much of the alternative media that we rely on is also, ultimately, corporate.

We must rebuild the government from ground up. It is so corrupt, so broken, so contradictory, and so suicidal that in its present form it cannot lead us anywhere but towards the grave.

Putting a nice guy at the top, even if that were possible, will not stop this death march.

The only option is to create a legitimate government from the bottom up; we must start from your family members, from your neighbors, from your local government and only then work our way up. Once we control our own minds, our own families, and we are able to make our own decisions without being fed the mind-numbing trash, flavored conservative or progressive, called news, then we can build a real government, a real economy, and a real culture that grows from the people, and that has nothing to do with supercomputers or multinational investment banks.  

This directive is meant to instruct you as to what you need to do now in coordination with the US Provisional Government so as to prepare for the initial shock and awe.

This directive is meant to start the process of organizing, beginning with your family, to create sustainable local communities that can supply food, water, housing, and other necessities in the face of systemic breakdown.

We will not be able to assist you during the initial stage; we can only offer directives. However, that approach is preferable as self-sufficiency is the only manner in which we can restore legitimate governance.

We will need entirely new systems that are run in a transparent manner by the people—with no global capital involved, for food production, water supply, energy supply, distribution, information and education, and housing.

Remember, there will not be a real government until you and your neighbors build one with your own hands. That “government” that you see out there today has become a criminal syndicate; it is not a government any more.

We have been offered a false choice by the bankers. They say we most chose between the government and the private sector. That false choice is the same in Washington and Paris, in Berlin and Moscow, in Tokyo and Beijing. That “private sector” means global capital, the banks and corporations, that run this broken system.

That is to say that the private sector is the same as the government but worse. The private sector is run by the rich in a totalitarian manner for their own benefit.

Rebuilding government means making it clear that the relationship must be between the government and the people, the community, to which the government is ultimately responsible.

What will happen next

A partial shutdown of the economy and of the functions of government, civil society and business is already in effect. That is only the beginning. Plans are in place for a complete shutdown, perhaps using the threat of nuclear war, or some other catastrophe, as an excuse to push through martial law, to isolate the citizens, to allow corporations to completely control all means of finance, production, distribution and sales, and to create complete dependency on government and on multinational corporations for the basics of life.  

Basic principles

Attitude is essential. We must be spiritually and psychologically strong and we must overcome fear, irrational fear of the unknown. They will use hyped-up fear, terror, as the tool to control us—as they already have done with numerous fake school shootings, contrived racial attacks, and other incidents intended to convince us that the enemy is our neighbor who has different habits, and not the rich who wish to destroy us all. Divide, rule, and destroy is not just a strategy, it is now the only strategy.

We must quickly establish a healthy culture, which means overcoming the negative popular culture forced on us by the corporations, notably, the cult of the self, narcissism, the throw-away culture of consumption and waste, and the trap of emotional manipulation through gender and ethnic branding that is meant to destroy our personal autonomy.   

That means a return to real values, real love, real family, and real responsibility to the community. It means moving away from the individual as the focus and embracing values like frugality and honesty.

We must look out for our families first as we prepare for a total systemic collapse. At the same time, we must have a strong sense of community so that we are ready to help each other, and to take risks for each other, when the situation demands it.

If we try to just save ourselves, we will not survive.

We need to identify who has what skills in our neighborhood, and what his or her role will be when the system breaks down.

Who has skills as a farmer, a doctor, a negotiator, a teacher, an organizer, a carpenter, a moral leader, etc.? Money is not the important factor in making these plans because money can very quickly have little value if the authority of public institutions dissolves, or if banks are shut down.

Having money in cash may be valuable, but it may be even better to buy things necessary for survival. Do so in coordination with others so we do not duplicate everything.

There should be two parts of our response which must undertaken simultaneously. First there must be an immediate response to the shutdown: stockpiling food and supplies, purchasing tools and objects with real value, and forming plans with friends and neighbors for how we can pool resources, reduce waste, change habits, and form a community quickly.

Second, we need a long-term program for sustainable agriculture, creating local manufacturing, and forming communities that are self-sufficient, communities wherein the means of production, distribution and consumption are controlled by the people in a democratic manner, much in the sense envisioned in the United States at the time of the signing of the Constitution. When everything else collapses, those local groups will become everything.

Self-sufficiency over months and years will require a major shift in our thinking about ourselves and our community. They will take time and careful planning. That part is not simply about surviving on food you have hoarded. Hoarding in itself will not protect you if everyone is a hoarder. We need a community.  

The biggest challenge will be talking with your family about the crisis honestly and making a plan together. If you can do that, you are already halfway to the solution.

Next, snap out of denial! Overcome your shyness and start to discuss these matters seriously with your neighbors. The culture fed to us by television and movies encourages in us an obsession with personal needs and discourages the building a community. This poisonous culture must be exposed and driven out.

What you need to know:

The SAT test never asks you how to make water potable, how to create your own compost for your garden, which local plants are edible, or how to raise chickens. That is no accident. The multinational corporations want you to be dependent on what they supply and lacking in self-sufficiency. They are counting on this crash to bring you to your knees.

There are various manuals that can be bought, or downloaded, that can teach you how to compost, to farm, to raise animals, to purify water, to build your own home or furniture, to sew clothes, etc. Get these materials and study them. See how you can reduce your expenses through self-sufficiency rather than scrambling to get more money.

Money may disappear, or it may be reduced to digital currencies that can be cancelled, or made conditional, at any time. Barter and trust are critical to create economies that are not dependent on money. Eventually we can establish our own revolutionary currency based on real value.

We have been suckered into dependency on fossil fuels that are destructive to the environment through a long process over one hundred years. Reducing the use of energy, unnecessary travel, and other wasteful behavior can be transformative. Sharing resources, and working to create water mills, install good old fashioned wind mills, set up solar energy (and the best form of solar energy is using the sun to grow plants we eat), and manual labor will make us stronger and more independent.

That means learning new skills—actually old skills—and it means rejecting the growth cult. Build houses that will last for a hundred years, weave pants that will last for fifty years, and you will find that we do not need that much, that we are free for the first time. Teach yourself and your children to read, and to talk about the deep truths in the great books, and you will be liberated.

We must create our own logistics and distribution systems that are independent of the current import, logistics, distribution, sales monopoly run by multinational corporations. Breaking the control of global finance on what we buy is critical for survival.

We need to create our own networks to get out reliable news and analysis to family, friends, and neighbors. If necessary it can be done by word of mouth, printed documents, even hand-written notes. In some cases, the internet can be an effective medium, but increasingly the Internet is not our friend and if there is no electricity, there will be no Internet.

We need to teach our own children, and our neighbors’ children, and to teach ourselves, through a new educational system that is based in science and in ethical principles that go beyond the culture of narcissism.  

Local governance based on the Constitution, and the great moral teachings of the past, one that involves citizens gathering to resolve difficult issues through meaningful debate and transparent policy proposals, will be critical.

We must deal with difficult questions like ownership. Obviously the land bought up by multinational corporations with fake money does not belong to them. But we must have a consistent policy concerning how that land is owned and administered, how it is farmed and how the food produced is shared. The banks and corporations clearly do not have any legitimate claim of ownership but we must set up logical and just definitions of what possession means to avoid chaos.

That process will require us to face the massive class conflicts that haunt our country, conflicts between us, conflicts and contradictions that have been covered over with identity politics by the left and with the hyping issues like illegal immigration by the right.

The problem of security

The fake declaration that a nuclear war has started may be accompanied by the use of 5G, or robots and drones, to attack citizens. These are real threats from within and we must be prepared.

The dangers of a shock and awe attack meant to completely demoralize and confuse us are high—but every one of these threats can be responded to if we are level headed, organized and committed to the cause.

It is a sad fact of history that we are always preparing to fight the last war. This next war will play out according to unfamiliar rules. The principles of war, however, are unchanging.

Safety first! But it is a mistake to start swinging your sword if you do not know who your enemy is.

Our enemies have gone to great length to cover their tracks, to hide behind those cardboard messiahs.

Let us start with our food, our water, our soil, and our air.

We will need to establish our own systems to assess the quality of air, of soil, of food, and of water, without relying on corporate or government controlled organizations. We must defend the quality of air and water because they are essential to life and they are under attack.

At the beginning, we cannot shoot down the planes engaged in geoengineering; we cannot stop low-orbit military satellites.

Yet, do not despair!

If we build up our network from the bottom up, one based on mutual support and mutual respect, eventually we will be able to reach to the heavens.  

We must take down all the 5G towers that are used to assault our bodies, and our minds, using electromagnetic radiation. As those 5G networks are supposedly private property owned by Verizon, ATT, or others, this operation requires preparation. We need to explain to citizens, and to anyone who asks, or who challenges us, why the money used to build those towers was fake and why the organizations running 5G networks are criminal syndicates working to destroy us.

Such arguments will be difficult at first, but I have complete confidence that as things get worse, those arguments will eventually carry the day. Go forth with confidence.

Attacks by drones and robots are also entirely possible, especially if martial law is declared in response to a nuclear war, real or fabricated. There are ways to defend ourselves against these weapons, and to dismantle them. The first step is to talk with each other honestly and to start brainstorming.

The military, the intelligence community, and the police

It is a sad fact that the collapse of our civilization, and the profound corruption that has spread through all parts of the body politic, have rendered the organizations that are supposed to be concerned with safety and security as criminal syndicates that use their authority and supposed legitimacy to push through projects that benefit the few by destroying us.

Many an honest military officer, or police officer, has been destroyed in secret by the globalists, or forced to do terrible things in response to horrible threats.

The situation seems overwhelming, but it is far from hopeless. We have faced such challenges before in human history and once a serious discussion starts outside of banal consumer culture, real leaders with real solutions will emerge.

We have complete faith that a way forward will become manifest once we know the truth and that truth sets us free.

If you are a member of the police, of the military, or of intelligence, a man or woman who has a conscience, who cares about the Constitution and the rule of law, who is concerned about whether your children will survive, please allow me to make a suggestion.

Look around and see if you can identify others who have similar concerns. See if you can form a space in which you can speak with colleagues honestly, and assess what is going on accurately, a space wherein you can discuss what needs to be done. If you can create such a space, you have made tremendous progress.

Do not be concerned about whether it is two people, or a hundred people. Numbers are not important at this moment.

If you must take action that seems ineffective, do not be discouraged. Every single act of resistance, every effort to dismantle the rule of our nation by global capital, makes a real difference, even if it is not immediately visible.

Your historic contributions may not be recognized for decades. That is how history works. Those seeking immediate fame and glory are not to be trusted.

We must work for the country, for our children, but also for the children of others.

Your training in security matters is not so valuable in a government run by billionaires. You are slated for destruction sooner or later. There can be no doubt about that.

But among the citizens, your understanding could be a matter of life and death. You are desperately needed by the nation.

Finally, the United States of America is founded on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If the government rejects that contract between the people and the institutions empowered to use force, to effect the economy, then it is no longer a “government” but rather a criminal syndicate. If we are loyal to the people, follow the word and the spirit of the Constitution, are ethical in accord with natural law, we are the government, even if we are but a handful of people.

Our influence will expand exponentially as the crisis enters the next stage.

Back to the citizens of our nation.

Please contact the United States Provisional Government at any time if you have questions or suggestions. You are the ones who will lead and I have complete confidence that real leaders will emerge. They will not come from Harvard or Google. They may come from humble backgrounds, but they will be remarkable in every sense. What happens to me is totally, totally unimportant.

The United States Provisional Government is not here to offer you a service. That undemocratic concept of government as a service was promoted by corporations as a means of enslaving us.

We are here to help you organize into a community that will serve the role of governance from the ground up. The age of dependency on the Federal Government and on multinational corporations is over.