Esoteric means something that is known by only a select few, and requiring secret or specialized knowledge.
From time to time in the Tactical Civics™ Training Center, or on one of our calls or interviews, we have people present esoteric law theories about the Constitution or our republic: gold fringes on flags, public documents or people’s names using all capitals, statements such as “admiralty law replaced civil law”, or “in 1870, the Queen of England made America into a corporation”, and there are many others.
Like cult members, the longer they have been absorbed by these theories, the more unlikely an esoteric law theorist will be to function in our mission and the more likely they are to poison the minds of others.
All such theories are invalid theories because of their false first premise: a secret cabal decided something long ago that became law for all of us.
Logic: Truth and Validity
In deductive logic, arguments have several premises leading to a proposed conclusion. The important property of premises and conclusions is their truth; the important property of arguments is their validity.
So the key difference between truth and validity is: truth is a property of premises and conclusions, whereas validity is a property of arguments. You can have true premises and a true conclusion yet still have an invalid argument. And you can have false premises and a false conclusion, yet the argument is still valid.
We determine the truth of a premise or conclusion by using common sense, personal experience, long cultural acceptance, investigation, and so on. We determine that an argument is valid when the conclusion follows logically from the premises. So, let’s consider this popular esoteric law argument:
Premise A: When a secret group makes an arrangement, it becomes law for all Americans. (False)
Premise B: A secret group made an arrangement long ago. (True)
Conclusion: What the secret group arranged long ago, is law for all Americans. (False)
As you see, their first premise is false; it makes no common sense and has never been accepted or even recognized in our culture. It is pure nonsense. Thus, even granting that evil people did in fact meet to arrange a nefarious scheme impacting all Americans, their scheme never impacted and will never impact us.
Now, let’s look at another common one:
Premise A: Admiralty law pertains to ships at sea, and civil law pertains to dry land. (True)
Premise B: Courtrooms have a barrier between judge/jury/parties and courtroom gallery. (True)
Premise C: The barriers look like the railings on old sailing ships. (True)
Conclusion: All courtrooms are admiralty courts. (False)
And not just false, but bats#!t crazy false.
Who started these loopy ideas? I suppose it may have been idle pranksters, or paranoid persons with too much time on their hands. But if criminals on the government payroll had wanted to render Americans incapable of rational, effective action, sowing esoteric law theories into the ‘patriot’ community was an effective way to do it.
Incidentally, ours is not a civil law system but a common law legal system. That means that cases are brought to court and are decided based on past decisions and long tradition, not on some written law.
Why They Do It Anyway
But most European countries (and many others) have a civil law system. That is also known as ‘positive law’; an ever-growing mountain of laws drawn up by tyrants and bureaucrats directing what the people can do and cannot do.
Wait…if our Constitution is really the supreme Law of the Land and We The People are collectively the sovereign over it, then why do so many illegitimate, unconstitutional regulatory agencies and programs in federal, state, county, and city bureaucracies create and enforce all kinds of ‘regulations’, directives, and pronouncements whenever they want?
Well, because stupid people are even more dangerous than evil people.
No one can force an American to do, buy, or pay something without the consent of the citizen affected, unless the practice is generally accepted by the People. But as professor Philip Hamburger of Columbia Law School has taught for decades, lawless bureaucrats have been creating positive law fiefdoms, and as long as the People sit idly by and accept these lawless incursions, they will continue piling up. That does not mean they are lawful.
It just means that just like esoteric theories, bullying works on ignorant, timid people.
I could go on about the ALL CAPITALS theory, the gold-fringed-flag theory, and others; but you get the point. It’s a zoo out there, and Tactical Civics™ refuses to take part. The Internet is an amazing invention, but it is also rife with nonsense on every imaginable subject.
Example: “The Organic Act of 1871 made the United States a corporation and created a new Constitution!!”
That is hogswallop. The D.C. Organic Act of 1871 referred only to the 10×10 mile District of Columbia; they amalgamated Anacostia, Georgetown, and Tenley Town into one ‘City of Washington’, then congress consolidated the County of Washington, City of Washington, and District of Columbia into one governmental unit. That conforms to our stipulation in Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution, in which we give congress exclusive legislative jurisdiction over that 10-miles-square area. The 1871 act did not replace or change the U.S. Constitution.
Notice to Theorists
It’s challenging enough to teach willing citizens the civics and history that was kept from us in school and college; we don’t need esoteric law theorists adding confusion and nonsense to the challenge.
Anyone in our Tactical Civics™ Training Center who holds esoteric law theories: we invite you to kindly leave now, unless you promise to not raise your theories here or in any Tactical Civics™ function, and promise to put that nonsense in your past.
If you cannot promise that, our organization is not your soapbox for propounding insipid theories. Cease and desist.
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