Cousin B Presents 'Essays On Civil Mis-Obedience and Other Assorted Nonsense

A brief preface....with donuts!

So, you’re probably wondering why I called you all here……

Yes, there will be donuts. No, I don’t think we have Crullers.

In the ensuing pages, examine with me several aspects of modern life in the United States, and some of the root causes or beliefs behind them.

In the spirit of Henry David Thoreau’s ‘Essays on Civil Disobedience’, we’ll look at how and why some of our modern political and social paradigms play out. But, unlike Thoreau, we aren’t as concerned about disobedience- unjust laws that we should break in order to force change, and I won’t argue that there are some- but unjust laws and principles that we, in fact, obey- that is, ‘mis-obey’- to our own detriment.

One could say that the USA’s Founding Father’s writings- their philosophies, their documents, their speeches and letters- were bigger than them, exceeding their own perception. ‘All men are created equal’ comes to mind. The larger truth as we perceive it now is that all persons are created equal, and we all have, you know, equal rights and stuff under the law. We now understand, well, most of us, that this applies regardless of race, creed, gender or demographic details.

But not all of us. And not everybody chooses a side for exactly the right reasons. Bias and greed still play a dominating role in all our lives, whether we are personally biased or greedy or not. And, while a great deal of it comes from ignorance, a major portion of our unrest is also generated by politics, intentionally stacking us against each other in pursuit of a political win.

Thoreau admonished us that it is the responsibility of citizens to disobey and move to change bad laws. But, that’s kind of too late. We need to ‘cut it off at the pass’- to simply not ‘obey’ - accept and believe- the principles and promptings from politicians that result in the passage of bad laws.

So, we have to be careful about giving our support to ideologies that become laws by doing harm to ‘undesirable factions’. We are the USA. We don’t have ‘undesirable factions’. We have equal rights as a basic foundation, and laws to protect us from there up. Yes, there are still criminals, gangs, and if they are lawbreakers, then the law should bind them, again, regardless of race, creed, gender or demographic details.

And, by the mandates of our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, in line with our US legal code, we can, and should want to practice and enforce them with equal temperament and transparency.

Our Constitutional laws must equally bind and protect all. If one doesn’t, if it favors one or punishes another, it’s a bad law, which should be changed. We should enforce the good laws and disobey the bad ones.

We just have to agree on which is which.

Our laws are generally written on the basis of harm- to one another, to the public, or to the government. But, bad laws, based on ideology or superstition, do wrangle their way in, and several such modern laws are being contested precisely because there is an element of harm.

Along those lines, we must be vigilant and careful. We have to resist equating personal behavior we disdain with stereotyping entire demographics. This is how we get culture laws.

We are in the midst of a most unique era in history, where information access is global and instant. Where virtually anything that can be known can be found. And more and more of our story is digitized and added to the continuum every day. We have, more than ever before, the ability to know and verify our history, our laws, our shared experiences, our opinions, and our arts.

But, in an ironic twist, the platform is as amenable to falsehood and propaganda as it is to accurate information. And, like the Middle Ages, one’s knowledge and understanding is limited to one’s exposure. This is the kind of obfuscation that leads to ‘mis-obedience’.

I’ll talk about how things got be this way, and sometimes, just about how things got to be. We’ll look at history, science, religion, philosophy and myriad social phenomena. Some of it may cover things you already know, some may not. Some of it may agree with how you feel, some may not.

Some will be short missives or gags and some will be longer, more in-depth discussions. Subjects may be historical, or social, or political, or outright facetious.

So, a few things will recur or repeat in these pages, namely, the liberal Democratic versus conservative Republican tome, the rich versus the poor theme, and the communism as a threat motif. Along with the increased impact of technology, we will examine just what the hell the modern age is doing to the modern age.

Along the way, I will always strive to be honest, reasonable, sarcastic, caustic, silly, pretentious, yet humble, cynical, obtuse, anal, silly, combative, irreverent, sincere, candid, metaphysical and did we mention silly?

As we evolve into the 21st Century, which political and social trends we ‘obey’, and which we don’t, plays a crucial role in what kind of development can lie ahead. It’s up to us to learn about our history, our community and our laws and decide to obey and protect those rules and principles that are good, that benefit us all, and to disobey and change those that are harmful, divisive, or worse, evil.

With thanks and apologies to Henry David.

C. 2024 Cousin B