The 5th Empire - Fraud

Giving orders is not a crime in the 5th Empire. But acting them out is a crime if the perpetrator knows that the orders are in violation of the golden rule. However, if the order is fraudulent and deceptive, the order giver may nevertheless be held responsible for damage.

For example, the current prime minister of Norway was the minister of defense during the war against Gaddafi. When asked by the Obama administration to bomb orphanages suspected of hiding Gaddafi, he did not hesitate to forward the order to the air force, and the orphanages were bombed without warnings. Hundreds of children were likely killed as a consequence.

The targets were never a secret. The pilots knew what they were doing. But they chose nevertheless to follow orders. That's a cut and dry case of a crime committed by Norwegian pilots. They should have recognized the order for what it was, and refused to act.

The current prime minister committed a sin, but not a crime. He didn't bomb any children. He merely suggested that this should be done. However, had he held back information, and made a convincing case for the bombing as a necessary act of self defense, the case would have been different. But there's no way he could have done that. Libya was never a threat to Norway. Even if the targets' specifics were a secret to the pilots, they should have refused to act. Dropping bombs on civilians in far away places cannot in any way be seen as legitimate.

This logic derives from the fact that anarchies like the 5th Empire or God's Kingdom on Earth don't recognize the state as a legitimate authority on anything. Crimes are perpetrated by individuals. And merely saying something is not a crime. The acting agents in the case above were the pilots, and hence, it's the pilots that will have to stand trail on judgment day. They may try to defend themselves, claiming that they were deceived by the minister, but that's unlikely to stand.

The only type of speech that can be considered criminal in an anarchy is fraud. This includes deception and pretending to be something that we're not. But this is only a crime if it results in damage. The fraud has to be sufficiently clever to trick people, and there has to be intent. The fraudster is not merely an eccentric pretending to be something he's not. He's pretending to be what he isn't for the purpose of tricking people into doing something against their interest.

This means that most people on my list of vaccine proponents are innocent of any crime. However, some have claimed to be experts on matters they have little knowledge of. They have lied with the intent to defraud the public. They have claimed to know things that they cannot possibly know.

What separates a lie from an order is that an openly evil order can be stopped simply by not acting on it. The minions are not obliged to act. They are not being defrauded. They are therefore the true culprits. However, a lie doesn't go through any middle men. They are projected directly at the public, and those who fall for it can legitimately sue for damage.

The most common crime perpetrated by politicians, journalists and corporate leaders is fraud. These people don't normally commit acts of physical harm. But they do lie, and they do this a lot. Their entire careers are sometimes built on fraud.

This is now on full display. Not a day goes by without some politician or journalist claiming that children must be vaccinated in order for us all to be safe. This is evil, and should be punished as such. However, these same people cannot be held responsible for mandates and regulations that require the cooperation of minions. For that type of crime, it is the minions that are at fault, and they must be held personally responsible for their actions, just like those higher up must be held responsible for their lies.

Boris Johnson

By Ben Shread / Cabinet Office, OGL 3, Link