Defunding Civilization

The current "social justice" movement that is demanding the defunding and dismantling of police departments in many cities across the nation is made up of people who are either remarkably naïve or so poorly educated about the nature of a civil society as to be dangerous to themselves and freedom at large. To understand the damage being contemplated, it is important to step back and see how vital you, the law enforcement officer, are for freedom to even exist in a world where human history shows emphatically that “free” is not the natural state of mankind.

If a professor from an alien race were to give a lecture tomorrow on our species, slavery, poverty, hunger, and war would be presented as the natural state of humanity. Today, wars still rage throughout the world without the slightest mention on social media or on any news outlets whatsoever. Just Google “wars in the world” and sit back and be amazed. Millions will also die of diseases other than the dreaded COVID-19, and starvation affects millions worldwide. Meanwhile, in the sheltered cities of overfed America, history is no longer taught or understood, and without knowing where we came from, we have little understanding of where to go. To see our past, with all its glory and all its shame, is a critical component of uniting a diverse population into one with common goals and values.

To know history is to know that our contemporary law enforcement traditions of protecting individuals go back to Alfred the Great in the 800s, and a constabulary dedicated to those rights is one of the bedrocks of a free society. Failure of our schools to teach these things and failure of our people to learn these things makes destroying and remaking, I mean “reimagining,” seem easy.

The National Law Enforcement Memorial exists as an embodiment of the historic sacrifice paid to maintain freedom, yet such memorials are being defaced across the nation. Rest assured the fantasies of the activists are utopian in nature; they believe Rousseau’s fallacious concept of the “noble savage,” and fail to take true human nature into account. In the last century such dreamers led their nations to the murders of approximately 169 million people in pursuit of some idealized world. Those who have lived in those doomed societies can attest to the vile nature of a constabulary that is loyal to a party, versus one that is loyal to the rights of the people.

In “Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society,” Nicholas Christakis argues that human nature is a real driving force in societies, and that people are happiest in free societies, not in societies that control most aspects of their lives. Aristotle, the philosopher that Western Civilization would follow to create the freest societies in human history, would approve of this idea. I think the War on Cops is inextricably linked to a war on the West, an effort to “reimagine” the world in an unrealistic and toxic manner. Instead of uniting us, we see constant efforts to divide our society. Instead of security, we see open propaganda designed to create insecurity in the hopes it will make people willing to sacrifice freedoms in the name of safety. Yet this would be going exactly in the wrong direction if Christakis is right about human nature.           

So, if sociobiology and political philosophy seem to concur on a preference for freedom, why are the malcontents rushing to destroy our history, traditions, and institutions? What is the nature and quality of the society their actions will lead to? Words like fairness, equality, equity, and other catch phrases are bandied about without the slightest understanding of how they will actually manifest in the real world. Using the words and values of many of these “reformers,” North Korea would seem to be the model of a well-structured society.

I doubt anyone believes the rhetoric that “reimagining” police will lead to a utopian society without a police force. A utopian constabulary is never one we might call “community oriented;” they are always aligned and controlled by the ruling elites. It is time to call this nonsense what it is… an ”authoritarian fantasy” that will only create more and more unrest. It is time to demand schools teach “civics” again so our youth can see where we came from, so they can know where to go when they are in the halls of power, and so they truly understand whom they should serve. And finally, it is time to teach all Americans that we are free because of dedicated men and women who serve us, and protect us at home and abroad.

Dave Smith is an internationally recognized law enforcement trainer and is the creator of “JD Buck Savage.” You can follow Buck on Twitter at @thebucksavage.