the United States and the emergence of centralized, technicallyrnskilled elites that specialize in the usurpation of previouslyrnautonomous social functions. Hence, just as Americans in thernmass-managerial regime are dependent on mass corporations,rnoffices, and factories for their livelihoods, just as they are dependentrnon mass political parties and illusory mass participationrnin the political process, just as they are dependent on andrnengulfed bv the mass culture that is continuously fed to themrnin spectator sports, television, film, art, music, and popular literature,rnand just as in all these dimensions of life Americans increasingKrnsurrender the active and participatory roles that republicanrngoernnrent demands, so too in anarcho-tyranny wernare habituated to an entirely passive role in securing our protectionrnfrom criminals. George Will’s “police saturation” is indeedrnthe logical and practical outcome of this kind of massrnpacification, as more and more Americans swallow the lie thatrnthc arc too stupid and too reckless to protect themselves,rntheir homes, and their families and that cops who could barehrnmake it through high school and bureaucrats who cannotrnsupport themselves outside a government payroll must do it forrnthem.rnYet there are signs that some Americans are not buyingrninto the lie of anarcho-tyranny, that at least as far as crime andrnpersonal safetv are concerned, some are awakening to thernancient lesson of republican government, that in order to governrn ourself politically you must first be able to govern yourselfrnpersonalK and morally and that that lesson means assumingrnrcsponsibilit for our own protection. For months in 1987 inrnDetroit, citizens conrplained to the police about teenagernprostitutes from a crack house in the neighborhood whornsolicited old men and adolescents on the street, about drugrndealers firing guns in the air for fun, and about a shoot-out betweenrndrug gangs while neighborhood children played in thernstreet. Not once did the police respond to any of the repeatedrncalls. Then one day after the shoot-out, two local men namedrnAngelo Parisi and Perry Kent walked up the street, set fire to therncrack house, and burned it to the ground, and within minutesrnpolice arried to charge them with two counts of arson andrnassault with a deadly weapon. With community support, bothrnmen were acquitted bv a jury of all charges, and there arernstories similar to theirs in other American cities.rnSoon after the Los Angeles riots, the New York Times recountedrnthe story of a 20-year-old janitor, David Penso, who enjoyedrnthe less-than-bracing experience of watching a local discountrnstore being looted and burned by rioters as Los Angelesrnpolice cars drove past and did absolutely nothing. Mr. Penso—rnunlike George Bush, Jack Kemp, Bill Clinton, and GeorgernWill—learned something. “The cops were there,” he toldrnthe Times, “but they didn’t do anything. The only way peoplerncan be protected in Los Angeles is if they protect themselvesrnwith guns.” Some months before the Los Angeles riots, thernWashington Post carried a story about women and guns, reportingrnthat tliere are now about 12 million of them across therncountr, and one of them, a woman named Paxton Quigley inrnBeed’ Hills, a former activist for gun control and now ownerrnof a gun store that offers firearms training to women, told thernPost, “We cannot depend on anyone to protect us. We must dornit ourscK’cs. And the only way is to acquire the firepower it takesrnto dissuade violent criminals.”rnMr. Parisi and Mr. Kent, Miss Quigley and Mr. Penso, haverndiscovered the dirty little secret that can sweep anarcho-tyrannyrnout of office, that anarcho-tyranny flourishes only when citizensrnsurrender their rights and their duties of protecting themselves,rnassuming responsibility for themselves, and governingrnthemselves and that when the anarcho-tyrants promise to takernover and perform these duties themselves, they are uttering arnlie that leads to slavery and the jungle at the same time. Whenrnanarcho-tyranny flourishes, it protects no one except the elitesrnwho fatten on it, and it encourages only the withering of selfgovernmentrnand responsibility. In the movie The MagnificentrnSeven, the bandit leader, played by Eli Wallaeh, says of thernMexican peasants he is robbing and killing, “If God had notrnwanted them sheared, he would not have made them sheep.”rnThe peasants in the end show that they are not sheep, not byrnhiring gunfighters and killers to do their fighting for them,rnwhich is what we do when we set up the BATF and “police saturation,”rnbut by learning how to fight for themselves. Sheep dornnot need to fight for themselves; they have shepherds who dornit for them, until the day comes when the shepherds lead theirrnsheep to slaughter. Only when more Americans learn thernlessons these citizens have learned, the lessons the peasants inrnThe Magnificent Seven had to learn, and only when they arernwilling to act on those lessons will anarcho-tyranny itselfrnwither away; only when Americans take back their own streetsrnthemselves will they have any streets that are safe. In thernwords of Lord Byron, “Who would be free, themselves mustrnstrike the blow.” x:rnHopernby Laurance WiederrnGive this child judgement, and more childrenrnSo that he, and they, can governrnOne another, face-to-face, like Moses talkingrnTo the well-spring wishedrnThat all the offspring might be prophets.rnThat mountain shadowrnLengthened in the wilderness. It touchedrnOur cities, made the farrnEnds of the earth, lands beyond the searnRemember what life might bernLike, if wanting didn’t make us bow to idols.rnPower, money, safety, famousrnFor a time, then ground and scattered by a wind.rnIf not this one, let someonernGome and lead us to ourselves. We lift our handrnTo fend the needless blow.rnWill feed the needy then. We show the blossom.rnTrunk, limb, fruit, sowrnGrain, and knead the bread. We think the sunlightrnGold on the west wallrnIs afternoon. Let us know more than can be said.rnJULY 1994/19rnrnrn