I've been thinking ...

... about T Jefferson's thoughts on rebellion (I'm wont to do that from time to time). I also notice that Kevin references this letter in his musings, and it makes me wonder something.

Is rebellion the mechanism that Jefferson envisioned to keep elites in their place? That in the course of human events, some of them might meet gruesome ends? I think it's reasonable from reading this letter that Jefferson intended that any citizen who engaged in rebellion should be set straight as to the facts of a situation, and then released .... kind of like a 'Don't do it again (wink wink). Specific to Shay's Rebellion, it was Jefferson's hope that the leaders be dealt with lightly, certainly not hanged.

It's been my long-held opinion that violence has been held back far more than the founders' (well, at least one!) would have hoped. When was the last time any public official was tarred-and-feathered? Run out of town on a rail?

Anyone? Beuller?

The constant threat of violence, to me, is one of the great deterents of our age. Ronald Reagan sought peace through superior firepower; the eminent promise of overwhelming force in the event of attack. It kinda worked.

By the same token, Jefferson, at least to me, envisioned that the constant threat of disgruntled citizen violence was what the doctor ordered to keep our liberties safe.

pm