Just Following Orders/ Love it or Leave It

Those who love the state have two arguments in extremis:

1. I was just following orders.

2. If you don't like it, just leave.

The problem with these two comments is as follows:

1. "I was just following orders."  This begs the question, "Whose orders?"   Who had the authority to order you, and how come they came by such authority?  They had the authority because you pledged allegiance.  You willingly gave your consent to be governed, and then you just followed orders.  Those who wield power may absolve you for being just a soldier following orders, but will your Maker do so?

Some will object to evil in the face of orders.  Often if that question is asked, for example, at Abu Ghraib or Treblinka, the answer is clear or, often as not, the superior giving the evil order will reply,  "don't worry, I will take responsibility."  

Well no human being has the right (the power yes, but not the right) to pass off to another the blame for his own evil actions.  If you follow the order, you alone are guilty.

Now the funny thing is, any soldier can ask for orders in writing.  The worst that can happen is they will be transferred out.  Soldiers can be shot for failing to follow orders, but not for asking the orders to be in writing.

2.  If you do not like it, just leave (love it or leave it.)  Those who objected to the Vietnam war were told to love America or leave it.  Very strange.  But in natural law, one has property rights, and human action in natural law is superior to state prescriptive law.  If you own a home in a USA, "leaving" is hardly an option.  It is the ones who propose war, a lower level human activity, who ought to leave, to advance their agenda, in another country.

Our love for others is concrete and superior to "love of state."

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