The Bill of Wrights

Ten Commandments for Building an Authoritarian State (inspired by a true story)

I. FREEDOM OF RELIGION, SPEECH, AND THE PRESS; RIGHTS OF ASSEMBLY AND PETITION

Discredit the press until your populace accepts laws to outlaw criticism of the State. The people must accept information only from the Leader. Choose a religion that seems foreign or threatening and ban its practice; once one religion is made illegal, others may also be eliminated. Leave one majority religion standing as a sop to the people, but carefully regulate its practice. Control public assemblies in the name of public safety and the safety of protesters. Outlaw any protests that affect the regular course of business; this will ensure corporate freedom, and the wealthy will loyally support social stability. Take the names of those who organize protests and charge them as terrorists. In the name of domestic security, detain those who resist authority. Brand them as troublemakers and threats.

II. RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

Well-regulated militias are essential to centralizing power. Encourage violence against opponents by non-government thugs in support of the Leader’s agenda, carefully eliminating them through law enforcement if they threaten to gain any actual power. Eliminate private ownership of weapons by slowly infringing on the tradition of personal defense: first disarm criminals under a steadily tightening net of increasingly arcane regulation, then call them drug users or insane; finally, announce the necessity to protect the State by criminalizing ownership of weapons. Your supporters will turn in anyone who resists your agenda as traitors, while your opponents will turn in anyone who keeps weapons as dangerous lunatics. Conservatives and liberals will work against each other to the benefit of the Leader.

III. HOUSING OF SOLDIERS

No patriotic citizen would resist affording comfortable accommodations to loyal soldiers, and feeding them to the uttermost of their personal budget, and offering their children for trysts of convenience. Arrest, and detain indefinitely, any who complain. Their homes will make fine officer quarters, and the loyalty of the officer corps will grow apace.

IV. SEARCH AND ARREST WARRANTS

Begin by identifying an identifiable scapegoat group, and insist that they and anyone who looks like them, worships like them (see above) or has visited their cousins are exempt from the limited freedoms allowed to normal citizens. In the name of national security, expand “border enforcement” to anywhere within the nation. Normalize regular demands for identification by any federal agency at any time, until the people are abjectly humbled and believe they exist within the great Nation only by the grace of its Leadership. Criticize local and provincial authorities until they are mistrusted by the people, then destroy them in the courts or with military force. This is called “setting the example.” Subvert open court processes in the pressing interest of national security; constantly raise the stakes by endless repetition of dire warnings of enemy plots. Eliminate any requirement for warrants or notification prior to arrest; all citizens must feel subject to arrest at any time. Encourage neighbors to betray immigrants, suspicious worshipers, colored people, and each other. Seize assets at the moment of arrest.

V. RIGHTS IN CRIMINAL CASES

Make the killing of federal officers the highest crime in the land, and resistance to national authority equivalent to murder. Each must be subject to summary execution in the field. Those who accuse resisters are allies to power. Hold them up as heroes in the land.

VI. RIGHTS TO A FAIR TRIAL

The definition of fairness is that which pleases the Leader. Trials, when held, will be strictly controlled, private matters of state. Journalists attempting to steal information and bamboozle the public with disloyal ideas are guilty of attempted murder of the State, which is above a capital crime. They must be caught and publicly executed. The “practice of law” is actually outside the law, as all Law proceeds directly from the Leader. Imprison those who suggest otherwise, beginning with attorneys and journalists. Nobody likes them, anyway.

VII. RIGHTS IN CIVIL CASES

Rights in civil cases are held in common by corporations and the State. To ensure freedom, citizens own property by the grace of their owning corporation, which cooperates patriotically with the State. There will be, therefore, no civil cases.

VIII. BAILS, FINES, AND PUNISHMENTS

If bail exceeds the asset value of a citizen, that citizen’s freedom and/or life shall be forfeit; this is known as “bluffing them off the table.” Punishments will always be at the discretion of the Leader and his secretaries. Any secretary failing to impose sufficient punishment for transgressing the written or unwritten will of the Leader will become a mere citizen, subject to imprisonment.

IX. RIGHTS RETAINED BY THE LEADER

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the Leader.

X. POWERS RETAINED BY THE STATES AND THE LEADER

The powers not delegated to the states by the Constitution, or to the people, are retained by the Leader.

Inspired by a true story.