Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 22 2010

St. Augustine defined a government as the dominant band of robbers in any society, a criminal clique with the power to re-define its plunder as ?public policy.?

He illustrated that principle in the famous parable of the pirate and the emperor. The first is described as a public menace because he preys on people with a single ship and small crew of cut-throats; the second is deemed a ruler because he does the same thing with the help of huge fleets and vast armies.

Bill Clinton updated Augustine in a brief comment offered in the middle of an extensive interview published in the December 2009 issue of Foreign Policy magazine. Addressing contemporary international affairs, Clinton defined terrorism as ?killing and robbery and coercion by people who do not have state authority and go beyond national borders.?

By that definition, killing, robbery and coercion carried out with state authority aren?t terrorism ? at least, from the perspective of whatever robber band is currently dominant in global affairs.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.