Home Society Where Are We Headed? Part 9: Blame

Where Are We Headed? Part 9: Blame

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Bill Gardner, former Sec'y of State of New Hampshire, and his history book
Bill Gardner, former Sec’y of State of New Hampshire, and his history book

by Mary W Maxwell, LLB

So far, this series on “Where Are We Headed” has discussed 8 basic concepts — the nation, government, war-making, politics, lying, plagues, leadership, and fear. Each, as we saw requires a deep look. Typically, the word sparks a single definition, but when you look at it, there’s always more to it. And owing to 21st century facts of life, the old word may be very misleading.

Today’s topic is blame. There seem to be two uses for the word blame. One has to do with emotion “Because of your stupidity, I lost my investment.”  (Or “I hate you for what you did to our son.”). The other is more rational-minded, having to do with holding someone accountable, legally. “Congress is to blame for not repealing that bad law.” “You can sue her for that broken window.”

I am extremely interested in that second definition. Much of my published writing has to do with court cases and with urging citizens to hold government officials — and media persons — accountable. But let’s first talk about the emotion of blame. In 2016, philosopher Martha Nussbaum pointed to Aeschylus’s plays in which The Furies, who, she says, were anger personified, had eventually to be tamed to fit in with the rest of the ancient Greek democracy. Nussbaum wants less anger.

Weare, New Hampshire, February 1722 (Two and a Half Centuries Ago)

My position today is that we have too greatly tamed our furies. We are not angry, we are nearly comatose as far as that emotion is concerned.  Was I ever surprised to come across the following item yesterday (November 2, 2024), in a book edited by William Gardner in 1976, entitled “Towns against Tyranny,” page 259:

Parliament in 1772 had passed a law that white pine trees in the province of New Hampshire could not be cut down as they were to be saved for masting the Royal Navy. But the people had no other trees with which to build their homes, so they did cut down many trees. Benjamin Whiting was the sheriff who was assigned to arrest Ebenezer Mudgett of Weare for this. I quote:

“It was late in the day when they found him…. The sheriff went to [an inn] for the night. The news that the sheriff had come for Mudgett spread like wildfire. Scores of men said they would bail him.  … Mudgett went to the inn at dawn, woke the sheriff. … Whiting rose, chid Mudgett for coming so early…. Then more than 20 men rushed in, faces blacked, switches in their hand, to give bail.

“[Sheriff] Whiting seized his pistols and would have shot some of them, but they caught him, held him by his arms and legs up from the floor, his face down, two men on each side and with their rods beat him to their heart’s content. They crossed out the account of all logs cut, drawn and forfeited, on his bare back. …They made him wish he had never heard of pine trees fit for the royal navy….”

Ivermectin Wrongly Banned

So let’s think about that. The NH governor worked for King George III. He should have upheld the law about log-cutting, right? His sheriff should have arrested the wrongdoers and in fact the wrongdoers should not have cut the trees in the first place, right?  That’s what most people say today, about the US government’s immoral rulings. They say “Obeying is the right thing to do!”

Consider the very helpful drug, ivermectin. It’s a good drug for Covid, and it used to be a common prescription medicine in the US but when the Powers That Be wanted us to get sick, in 2020, they forbade doctors to prescribe it. (Another theory is that all such good treatments pr Covid had to be repressed in order that an “emergency use authorization” could be granted to Pfizer at al. I think both these re true.)

Even today, after 4 years of Covid, when doctors know damn well that they should prescribe ivermectin, it is legally banned. The mechanism of control is via the AMA which can cancel the license of a “naughty” doctor.

Have you noticed 20 men from the New Hampshire town of Weare, or any other place, bursting into the offices the American Medical Association and holding an officer of that profession upside down till he erases the ban on ivermectin? No.  So why not? This is a REALLY IMPORTANT QUESTION.

The Old Testament Replaced by the New

In the Old Testament, written maybe around 2800BC, we find justice being encouraged by means of revenge. Per Leviticus 24: 17-20:

17 “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. 18 Whoever takes an animal’s life shall make it good, life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. 

Then came the gospel according to Matthew, written around 150AD:

38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

Pardon me, this bit is crazy: “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil.” Huh? Wha? It can’t be a good idea to let evil flourish and be uncritical of it. Matthew must have been on some kind of high when he wrote that.

Still, I don’t think this part of the New Testament had major influence. Rather, the theme of “be helpful to the needy” came to be a hallmark of Christianity. At the very least it can be noted that Jesus was angry at the money changers in the temple and even got physical while dealing with them, overturning table and yelling “My house is a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves.”

Accepting One’s Place, One’s Social Class

Probably more influential in history than the Bible was the sorting of people into social classes.  Once civilization began — I mean ‘cities’ — competition was no longer between every man and every man. Later, during the long feudal period, when the lord of the manor had custody of his peasants, it would have been rare for the latter to do violence to the former.

In my lifetime I have seen America go from a society where everyone was theoretically equal before the law, to one in which we “new peasants” are gradually accepting the right of the lord to do as he pleases and never get punished. Really, it is astonishing how we just assume that this or that government official can perform all sorts of crime, in broad daylight, and emerge unscathed. This must stop.

In most instances there is solid black-letter law describing the appropriate punishment — say for suborning perjury. But these Bozos suborn (recruit) false witnesses all the time. I have written whole books about this and am sick of it.

I recently renamed one of my books, the one about the false case against Jahar Tsarnaev. Its former title was “The Boston Marathon Bombing: What Can Law Do?”  I’ve now called it “Stop Lying about the Marathon Bombing — Or Else.”

Hmm. When I get around to it, I may change my book about the suppression of cancer cures from its 2013 title “Consider the Lilies” to something more leviticus-esque. For example, “If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him.” I suppose librarians may think that title is too cumbersome. OK. How about “Eye for an Eye, Cancer for Cancer”?

My book “Deliverance,” about mind control, could be renamed “You Torture My Child, I’ll Gouge Your Eyes Out.” Shakespeare did it.  Remember in Richard III, the poor old king not only lost his eyes but his testicles?

But We Need Solidarity

This article aims to address the general question of blame. I believe we have an innate emotion that drives the blaming of the guilty party. As argued so far, that sort of emotion has to be guided where a whole group is involved. Recall the 20 men who beat up the sheriff in New Hampshire in 1772. They acted in solidarity on behalf of Ebenezer Mudgett.

Solidarity is the male trait that greatly assists large-scale works of labor and encourages the bravery of warriors in battle. In the early 20th century, labor union solidarity, not limited to males, came to the aid of workers who were treated unfairly. These persons sensed their power to demand better wages and conditions as, by sheer numbers, they could threaten the factory owners.

Let me quote the Encyclopedia Britannica on the Pulman Strike of 1894, in which Eugene Debs helped the workers prevent railway traffic, near Chicago. Solidarity had enabled a very large strike, but Government got in there on behalf of the owners, successfully:

“In Washington, D.C., a majority of the president’s cabinet supported Attorney General Richard Olney’s demand that federal troops be sent to Chicago to end the ‘reign of terror.’ On July 2 Olney obtained an injunction from circuit court judges Peter S. Grosscup and William A. Woods (both of whom had strong antiunion sentiments) that prohibited ARU leaders from ‘compelling or inducing’ any employees of the affected railroads ‘to refuse or fail to perform any of their duties.’ The injunction, which invoked both the Sherman Antitrust Act [!!!] and the Interstate Commerce Act,  also prevented ARU leaders from communicating with their subordinates. Thus, Debs, who had been trying to prevent violence, could no longer even send telegrams advising against it.”

Note: Such is our government that a ‘reading of the law’ can always be dished up in a way that supports the powerful.  But we can fix this.

Nannyism

During the 2024 presidential election in US, which is going on e’en as I write, the Left is hoping for a socialist victory. This is partly related to the Woke movement in which one’s condition of powerlessness is seen as a consequence of race or gender. But there is also an enthusiasm for an increase in government handouts (and involvement in medical care). Sounds attractive, but a nanny state undermines strong masculinity.

Maybe I am making too much of the New Hampshire 1772 incident, but it is a clear case of people seeing that a law (about cutting down trees) was unfair. This is what we need — to identify the laws that go against justice. And then repeal those laws!

By the way, it seems that the men who beat up Sheriff Whiting did not go entirely free. Ten of them were indicted for having “beat, wounded, and evilly treated him.” And for acting “against the peace of our Lord the King, his crown and dignity.” Fancy that. Still the judges fined the men only 20 shillings!  I’ll quote William Gardner’s book again, “Towns against Tyranny,” page 260:

“Such a light punishment for so great an outrage on the sheriff of the county when serving a legal process, seems to show that the court had more sympathy for the men who cut the logs, and for popular sentiment than for the sheriff and the odious pine tree law”  

I suggest we look forward to, and endeavor to establish, a situation in which blame is not a taboo subject. We have millennia of written law (Hammurabi was no slouch back in 1700BC) to make good use of. Now just think of how advantageous it would be to compare the law to the other elements that affect blame — the emotion of revenge, the habit of excusing the upper class, and the practice of solidarity.

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50 COMMENTS

  1. As humanism is, and always has been, the scourge of humanity, and as it’s virtually supplanted Christianity in the last 200 years, it’s not exactly hard to figure out what’s up ahead (“Where Are We Headed”). Salvation is a matter of WEATHERING the storm; conjuring up more humanly devised solutions won’t do anything but sweep you straight into it

  2. Whilst a cracked pot, I am a crack shot, so I put one over the military bow, if VS me. I luv a 33 inch machete once used to 32.9, 20 years I have flung them around, so I can take it to an inch of your life. I can also mince words while I wait

    I love your old school included articles, Mary, and whew the new fury

  3. Ali Abunimah: why ‘Holocaust Harris’ deserved to lose
    Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada joins The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate to explain how Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s staunch support for Israel’s gruesome assault on Gaza helped cost them the election, and why they so richly deserved to lose.

    • Palestine stopped being a country when it was split into Trans-Jordan and Israel, it is about as real as Atlantis. There are two concentration camps called Gaza and West Bank which are not even the same people or history, Gaza probably had its own language, I don’t know when that stopped. Palestine was just a transition phase between the Ottoman Empire and Zion which is happening now.
      Your video the other day of Celente insisting Trump is owned by developers who have plans for Gaza was interesting. Well everyone has plans for Gaza redevelopment, why not have a developer president.

        • Sorry I should have said “British Palestine” but they call it Palestine now, as for before weren’t they called The Philistines ?
          I wouldn’t trust the history books they were sponsored, funded, preserved, sanctified “by the winners” so they are all crap.

          • That’s a valid point to some extent but Josephus sure wasn’t a winner and there’s no getting round the archaeological record

          • You will also need to prime yourself on all the propaganda as to why Israel should have Lebanon and Syria too. I would say that anybody who is able to accept imposter Israel as “the people of God” is also ready to accept a false messiah. The condescending manner in which you write bears evidence of that.

        • Any people of any land can be declared to be unwelcome squatters by that type of reasoning. When the time comes for your house to be bulldozed who will feel sorry for you? Jesus?

          • Of course not !
            He didn’t even jump in and save his 1st cousin from execution: there’s no record of him accommodating any Paula White-style whims

          • As per my above 9 am comment, the entire bible is anathema to harbouring any notion of setting oneself up nicely:

            “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
            JOHN 16:33

            “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”
            MATTHEW 24:13

          • That 24:13 should be the motto for the tax office, dangling the carrot, like the interest rate cuts

          • Weird choice of verses in defense of the persecutors. As always I ask what spirit you come from. The consequences are beyond this world.

          • What’s interesting is that the value of Islam is the antithesis of what the Islamists/Queers-for-Palestine think:

          • From 19:46
            “There’s this quote by CS Lewis in his book ‘Miracles’; he says,

            ‘every good chess player takes what is precisely the strong point in his opponent’s plan and makes it the pivot of his own plan –
            he takes his opponent’s best move and makes it work in his own favor; he makes unpredictable moves’

            This is kind of what persecution has done in Iran.”

            I call it the Gideon’s army principle
            I’d go so far as to say that if you don’t get it your future is worse than hopeless

  5. Ah– History Matters —

    41,323 views Dec 26, 2016
    The New Imperialism: European nations move aggressively to increase their colonial holdings in Africa, India and Asia between 1870 and 1914, with ominous consequences. Emphasis on the British Empire’s colonies in Africa and India.

    • Trump made the same claim in the Rogan interview

      Temporary fixes aside, I still think that Art Katz had it nailed:

      “Nations want to be autonomous so that they can choose their own
      course, and perform their own will, in the seeking of their own glory. The very existence of
      Israel in the world is a stubborn reminder of a God whose will they hate. To remove Israel is to remove God’s righteous demand upon them. To blot Israel out from their sight, by the
      liquidation of that people, is one of the reasons why Jews have suffered near annihilation in all
      their history. They were not innocent victims though, for their own sinful conduct justified the
      wrath that has been poured out upon them. Both things are true at the same time. Nations
      ventilating their hatred against God, and the fury that comes upon Israel, are exactly Israel’s
      deserving in proportion to their sins—not least being their failure to desire to be chosen, and to be for God what He has always intended.”
      https://ia902209.us.archive.org/14/items/ApostolicFoundationByArthurKatz/Apostolic%20Foundation%20by%20Arthur%20Katz.pdf

      • I see a direct correlation between the “taking sides” fandango that erupted on and after 7 October & the women’s rights, men’s rights, trans rights war. The fact is that we were all created to fulfil different needs. When we give way to feelings of jealousy, being left out, or cheated, all hell is bound to break loose

      • If you had tomorrow’s newspaper would you run out and buy the winning lotto ticket ? Of course most people would, this is what the Zionists are attempting, it’s not about religion it’s about manipulation

        • If they’re not fulfilling “what God has always intended” they’re not Zionists any more than Donald Trump is a Christian

          • As far as I am assured God wanted free will ? I guess it’s rigged like democracy.
            You may have some idealistic traditional definition of Zionist but the International Zionist Federation or whatever it’s called based in Switzerland, I think the guy Ben Guiron was involved, is I would say another creation altogether, and real Zionism is all about genocide and land acquisition. If you can manage to take a neutral view of events rather than backing one side you will get closer to a Christian perspective. Jesus didn’t say love everyone except muslims. There is no “except” built in. The early Christians were all persecuted for their trouble. “Christian soldiers” is a thing which came along much later. I don’t think Jesus is the only way but you probably do so I put things in your terms.

          • This old blind nigger was right onto it:

            “I wonder where my old mother, amen
            Wonder where my old mother, amen
            I wonder where my old father, amen
            Wonder where my old father, amen

            I rapped and I rapped in the mercy of the door
            ’Til my head got wet with the midnight dew
            Feel like children of Zion
            I feel like children of Zion, amen
            Lord, I feel like children of Zion, amen

            I wonder where my little baby, amen
            I wonder where my little baby, amen
            Just flying around somewhere in Glory, amen
            Just flying around somewhere in Glory, amen

            I rapped and I rapped in the mercy of the door
            ’Til my head got wet with the midnight dew
            Feel like children of Zion
            I feel like children of Zion, amen
            Lord, I feel like children of Zion, amen

            I wonder where my old deacon, amen
            I wonder where my old deacon, amen
            Just flying around somewhere in Glory, amen
            Just flying around somewhere in Glory, amen

            I rapped and I rapped in the mercy of the door
            ’Til my head got wet with the midnight dew
            Feel like children of Zion
            I feel like children of Zion, amen
            Lord, I feel like children of Zion, amen”

            What you’re doing is a Satanic reversal, a blasphemy

        • “On Thursday night, in a dark echo of Europe’s darkest days, Amsterdam bore witness to a pogrom.

          Following a Europa League football match between Ajax Amsterdam and Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv, ‘pro-Palestine’ thugs went on an organised and seemingly pre-meditated hours-long hunt for Maccabi supporters – because, well, they were Israeli Jews. And that is enough it seems, in this era of keffiyeh-sporting, BDS-fuelled anti-Semitism, to justify hunting people down and violently attacking them.

          According to Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema, men riding scooters searched the streets for Israelis and carried out ‘hit and run’ assaults. Other reports tell of masked men ambushing and attacking fans as they walked back to their hotels. Some Israelis were knocked down and beaten up. Others were forced to jump into canals to escape.

          One video recording shows a man lying on the ground as a gang of men repeatedly kick his motionless body. Another shows a vehicle being driven at what presumably is a Maccabi supporter. Another shows Jewish football fans being attacked in a crowded street, while a man shouts, ‘That’s for Gaza motherfucker… now you know how it feels’.”
          https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/11/08/a-pogrom-in-amsterdam/

          So when has there ever been an equivalent attack on Muslims?

          • BTW, the many and various attempts to discredit the Israeli account of the last 13 months is belied by the fact that, by 1970, the so-called “Palestinians” had already established a reputation for taking civilians hostage as a means of “liberating” themselves

            From 2:19:
            “The Marxist Leninist populist front for the liberation of Palestine even went so far is to hijack multiple planes, diverting the flights to a Palestinian controlled airfield in Jordan where the passengers were held hostage. By September 1970 the Jordanian army had finally had enough. A fullscale war with the PLO broke out and after 10 months of fighting it was driven out of the country. In retaliation the Jordanian prime minister was assassinated by the PLO faction known as Black September

            The same PLO then moved into Lebanon where they allied themselves with Marxist and socialist movements that were seeking to overthrow Lebanon’s conservative Maronite Christian government One of the most bloody Middle Eastern wars ever ensued; said nation has never fully recovered.”

  9. Australia’s Orwellian misinformation laws move one step closer to reality
    Controversial new legislation sparks debate on online censorship and accountability, as fears of a potential Digital ID system loom.
    In typical weaselling style, the far-left and increasingly authoritarian Labor Government sneaked in debate on the bill when they knew many people (including media) were distracted by the US election.
    This government has gone too far and must be held to account.
    Here are the ‘independents’ who voted FOR the bill. Teal on the outside, red on the inside.

    Kate Chaney – (08) 9388 0288 Kate.Chaney.MP@aph.gov.au

    Zoe Daniel – (03) 9557 4644 Zoe.Daniel.MP@aph.gov.au

    Monique Ryan – (03) 9326 2900 Monique.Ryan.MP@aph.gov.au

    Sophie Scamps – (02) 9913 9566 Sophie.Scamps.MP@aph.gov.au

    Zali Steggall – (02) 9977 6411 Zali.Steggall.MP@aph.gov.au

    Kylea Tink – (02) 9929 9822 Kylea.Tink.MP@aph.gov.au
    https://www.rebelnews.com/australia_s_orwellian_misinformation_laws_move_one_step_closer_to_reality

    • What a pack of creeps, all controlled by Simon Holmes a Court Baron Heytesbury, all lying about the weather, which is unseasonably cool around here lately, no Global Warming in evidence anywhere, crop failure more likely

  10. Australia’s Orwellian misinformation laws one step away from reality
    Disgraceful new online censorship legislation is now upon us and you can bet your last dollar that Digital ID will be the next step for ALL social media users.

    Labor’s new communist-style censorship laws are a step closer to becoming a reality after the Misinformation and Disinformation (MAD) Bill passed through the House of Representatives this week.

    In typical weaselling style, the far-left and increasingly authoritarian Labor Government sneaked in debate on the bill when they knew many people (including media) were distracted by the US election
    https://www.rebelnews.com/australia_s_orwellian_misinformation_laws_move_one_step_closer_to_reality

  11. This is a must see
    CITIZENS REPORT 7/11/2024 – Pentagon’s ‘Brisbane Line’ redux / Financial reset threatened by BRICS
    Militarization of the Top End is putting us in the sights of China and Russia.
    ABC Four Corners at it again conflating the emotive issue of social media harm on under 16s with the need for a MIS-DIS Bill.

  12. So again MM has distracted all with philosophical theories and legal dreams.
    I spend about 8 + hours a day trying to decipher TODAY TO ASCERTAIN TOMORROW.
    So I could not be bothered anymore with nonsense.
    There are selected respected analysis available if any one bothers to look.
    One thing I will mention that has been confirmed in a five person ( ex military) discussion today.
    EVERYTHING RAISED is what I have contemplated.
    One obvious point is that The Camel was too gracious in defeat. The shtf has three months to eventuate.
    Note prior reports by High and Algire.
    I cannot be bothered with stupid.

    • Sandra,
      Separately, separately I have for years suspected a partition of and dividing up of Australia being planned. So I did not bother with your link above.
      It was done in Africa. Europe, (many times) the Middle Eas and with Australia, when some bureaucrat in Whitehall drew lines across Australia and said they were states.
      What’s new?

        • Only new for the ignorant,- 15 mins wasted.
          For God’s sake, these dreamers should expose what happened to admiral Byrd in 1947- Maui, hurricane Helena as a start.
          Australia was promised to China by the rottenfellows for a bail
          Out and China gave them the finger. Why should china pay for Australia when they are buying it and can have it when ever they want.
          As for the Brisbane line, it is now the Byron Bay line?
          Yardda yardda.

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