by Stephen Lendman

He's a dangerous sociopath. He exhibits psychopathic characteristics. Psychiatrist Robert Hare says these people are "often charming."

At the same time, they exhibit "a stunning lack of conscience." They prioritize self-gratification. They do it at the expense of others. They're all take. They give back little or nothing.

They flagrantly violate societal rules. Many are criminals. Others use "their charm and chameleon-like" characteristics advantageously.

They "leav(e) a wake of ruined lives behind them." They're "glib and superficial, egocentric and grandiose, (remorseless), deceitful and manipulative.

They're impulsive. They exhibit poor behavior control. They need excitement. They're irresponsible. They see no reason to change ingrained behavior.

Experts are fooled. "A good psychopath (or sociopath) can play a concerto on anyone's heart strings," says Hare. They're "con artists."

They play by their own rules. They have lots of victims. Their personalities are "carved in stone." They have an "insatiable appetite for power and control."

They're "without conscience." They're amoral, unethical, deceitful, and manipulative. They breach social and legal standards.

They suffer no remorse. They're callously unconcerned about others. They're indifferent to human suffering.

Imagine the leader of the world's most powerful nation with these characteristics. Imagine him with his finger on the nuclear trigger. Imagine acting impulsively at the wrong time for the wrong reason.

Imagine waging potentially catastrophic global war. Imagine him doing it because no one stopped him. Imagine a better alternative.

Civil disobedience is a longstanding American tradition. Resisting tyranny is a universal right. America's Declaration of Independence states:

Everyone has "certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

"That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

"That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government..."

"(W)hen a long train of abuses and usurpations (establishes) absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government."

Jefferson called resisting tyranny "obedience to God." He said the "several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principles of unlimited submission to their General Government."

"Certain definite powers (are) reserv(ed to) each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self Government; and that whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force."

John Locke said when governments betray their people, their "trust must necessarily be forfeited, and the Power devolve into the hands of those that gave it, who may place it anew where they shall think best for their safety and security."

St. Thomas Aquinas said those "who govern in the interests of themselves rather than of the common good are tyrants."

Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" is an important landmark essay.

"Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree resign his conscience to the legislator," he asked?

"The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right."

"All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable."

"Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?"

The state "is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced."

"I will breathe after my own fashion."

"They can only force me who obey a higher law than I."

Ralph Waldo Emerson believed all unjust laws and practices should be resisted. They should be abolished.

Martin Luther King practiced nonviolent civil disobedience. He believed fighting injustice requires civil action.

He disobeyed unjust laws. He justified doing so on moral grounds. He said passivity is no option in the face of injustice.

He championed "creative protest." He said "I am convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good."

Nullification advocates believe individual states are entitled to nullify and disobey federal laws deemed unconstitutional.

In his book "Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century," Thomas E. Woods, Jr. wrote:

"Governments are notoriously difficult to control, even under the best of conditions."

"There has been no more destructive force in the history of the world than the modern state."

"The predatory modern state corrupts everything it touches."

"Nullification provides a shield between the people of a state and an unconstitutional law from the federal government."

"In the American system, the sovereigns are the peoples of the various states."

Jefferson, Madison and others called nullification a constitutional tool. They believed states could use it against federal usurpations of their rights.

They can resist unjust rule. They can refuse to obey unchecked power. They can demand fundamental freedoms. They're obligated to replace tyranny with government of, by and for everyone equitably.

Now's the time to do it. Obama represents the worst of rogue governance. He's waging war on humanity. Syria's in the eye of the storm.

He deplores peaceful conflict resolution. He didn't launch war on Syria to quit. Regime change plans remain firm.

War is his option of choice. Delaying it is head fake deception. Assad agreeing to turn over his chemical weapons to international control changes nothing.

Obama intends waging war anyway. He wants Syrian sovereignty destroyed. He wants subservient puppet rule replacing all independent governments.

He's waging war on humanity to do it. He risks annihilating it altogether. Stopping him matters most. The alternative is potential mass extinction.

Obama's waging war on peace. He's waging it on freedom. He's doing it nonstop. He's done so throughout his tenure.

He governs to the right of George Bush. He does so extrajudicially. His rap sheet exceeds the worst of his predecessors.

He defends the indefensible. He seeks unchallenged global dominance. He champions dystopian harshness. He's mindless of human suffering.

He's beholden to powerful monied interests. He institutionalized tyranny. It's a hair's breadth from full-blown. He mocks democratic values.

He spurns fundamental rule of law principles. He governs illegitimately. He's contemptuous of fundamental human needs.

He risks humanity's annihilation. Stopping him matters most. Doing it before it's too late is essential.

Famed anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901 - 1978) "measured success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings."

She said never underestimate the power of "a small group of committed people to change the world. It's the only (way it's) ever" done.

Wishing won't make it so. Complaining accomplishes nothing. Nor does voting column B over column A. Throwing out old bums for new ones won't help.

Grassroots activism alone works. Top down change never does. Changing things more than ever now is essential. Humanity's survival depends on it.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity"

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com

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