Carl Oglesby, (1976): Tyranny is Terror

from Carl Oglesby, The Cowboy and Indian War (1976, 1977)

Tyranny is Terror

Tyranny was never a remedy for terror. Tyranny is terror. Tyranny and terror promote and multiply each other so well because each is the other’s only possible “legitimation.” But if they are actually the same, as any Socrates could show, then they cannot “legitimate” each other. The choice between terror and totalitarianism is a choice that can only be made – can only be identified as a choice—by terrorists and tyrants. The democrat, the republican, and the independent among us will not be so quick to see terror and tyranny as opposite alternatives, but only as two sides of one coin, a single composite choice against liberty and humanity. The authentic rejection of terror mandates the rejection of tyranny. The authentic rejection of tyranny mandates the rejection of terror. There is no way to defend the democracy by the use of antidemocratic means. There is no antirepublican method corresponding to a republican purpose. There is no furtherance of national and personal and social independence through submission to national police controls. The state cannot at the same time uphold the law and trample it underfoot.

(emphasis in original)