Saturday, June 15, 2019

Locke, Jefferson, and Others Never Tired of Pointing out that Tyrannical Rulers, Not Those Who Resist Them, Are the True Rebels

The right of resistance therefore functions as a kind of safety valve, alerting rulers that they are overstepping their legitimate boundaries. If this right is denied, if the abuse of power is allowed to grow unchecked until it becomes tyrannical, then no remedy will be available except a complete revolution. The right of resistance provides citizens with another option. By resisting unjust laws before the onset of total tyranny, we may be able to reverse the growth of power, thereby avoiding tyranny – and the need for revolution.

This is more or less how John Locke viewed this issue. The “state of Mankind is not so miserable that they are not capable of using this Remedy, till it be too late to look for any.” It does no good to tell people that “they may expect Relief, when it is too late, and the evil is past Cure.” Locke continues:
This is in effect no more than to bid them first be Slaves, and then to take care of their Liberty; and when their Chains are on, tell them, they may act like Freemen. This, if barely so, is rather Mockery than Relief; and Men can never be secure from Tyranny, if there be no means to escape it, till they are perfectly under it: And therefore it is that they have not only a Right to get out of it, but to prevent it.
The classic objection to the right of resistance – that it will undercut the authority of all law – was answered by pointing out that law can retain its authority only so long as it is generally regarded as just. When a government enacts and enforces unjust laws, it rebels against the principles of natural right and undercuts its own authority. Locke, Jefferson, and others never tired of pointing out that tyrannical rulers, not those who resist them, are the true rebels. As Locke put it, “For Rebellion being an Opposition, not to Persons, but Authority, which is founded only in the Constitutions and Laws of the Government; those, whoever they be, who by force break through, and by force justify their violation of them, are truly and properly Rebels.”

The ruler must obey the same laws that are constitutionally prescribed for everyone else. Thus, whenever a ruler exceeds his or her constitutional limits, it is that ruler who rebels against the legal order and undermines legitimate authority. The right of resistance, therefore, is essential for preserving the authority of law, because it demands that everyone must abide by it, including those in power.

--George H. Smith, The System of Liberty: Themes in the History of Classical Liberalism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), e-book.


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