Moral Questions For The Resistance

There is a scene in District 9 where the lead characters have decided to make an assualt on the government/corporate complex. The human repeatedly tells the alien not to shoot at the soldier at one particular point, but said human ends up shooting a soldier, for the simple fact that the soldier shot him first. Thanks to a bullet proof vest and ridiculously powerful alien weaponry, this movie's answer to a very important question was, "He shot me first!", with expletives, of course.

I laughed out loud at this scene. I supposed it could be construed as a bit comedic, but I think at this point, it was more about realizing the movie was about as enlightening as a trip through Alcatraz. Blomkamp and company may have done a pretty good job at describing the prison, but there was no breaking out, no change of perspective that could not be described as an instinctual attempt at survival.
With the mental bars still firmly in place, the action seemed pointless.

I think this is why I laughed. I actually do think it's possible that many of us will face the question. Agents of the state can do us and our loved ones a world of harm. When is it moral to defend ourselves? Preferably we never end up in a situation where this issue comes up, but if we do end up in such a situation, if we have not thought about it, we will be unlikely to have the sheer dumb luck portrayed in that movie.

At some point one must be able to hold those who allegedly derive their power from the Constitution to the Constitution, but we can't; thus the Constitution is dead, and the pretenders ought to be sent off somewhere where they can't hurt the rest of us. How can this be accomplished? Even a rearrangement of states- say if California would break itself up into two states- requires a federal say so.

Disagreements shall mount, and certain parties already have guns, badges, and a general tendency to dislike a shrinking jurisdiction. I still don't understand the Tea Party people. What's the endgame? Doesn't it ultimately seem like they will just wave flags until they get a chance to vote for a Republican? Could they at least not vote so that the Republican party would die? That, at least would be a step in the right direction because it would destablize the power structure in Washington. The Democrats would fly off the handle without handy bogeymen.