[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> OPPOSITION TO WAR IN THE HEART OF TEXAS

[Peter Berenyi <berenyip@elender.hu>]

Robert Simon wrote:

> Try to imagine 5000 deaths one at a time, a fireman, a secretary, an
> investment banker and a restaurant worker. Burned, blasted, crushed.
Not
> "the U.S." and "itself", but this person--did he or she bring it on
> "himself" or "herself"? And if so, how so? Sentimentality? I think
not.
>
> What are the relations between the barbaric acts of states and their
> citizens? Who's responsible, and who deserves what?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that
among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to
secure
these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as
to
them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be
changed
for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath
shewn,
that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
than
to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the

same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it
is
their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to
provide
new Guards for their future security."

The message is clear. If the People have got the Right to alter or
abolish
their Government as soon as it becomes destructive of Life, Liberty or
the
pursuit of Happiness, then failing to do so under said circumstances is
the
sole responsibility of the People, who are also to be held responsible
for
any consequences of this failure. On the other hand, if a People doesn't

actually have this Right, it can not be held responsible either.

Now you decide:

Are US citizens responsible for the deeds of their Government?
Are Afghani citizens responsible for the deeds of their Government?


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