Sovereign Citizens

This term – Sovereign Citizens – was new to me until a few weeks ago. I had honestly never heard it before!

Apparently a sovereign citizen is someone who does not accept Australia’s (or any country’s) legal framework or government and consider themselves outside the law. It has reached the stage in the US, such that the FBI now considers sovereign citizens to be domestic terrorists and the Department of Homeland Security has listed them as the No 1 domestic terror threat. There is a similar growing concern in Australia.

These people, these “sovereign citizens”, apparently do not believe in paying taxes, pay motor vehicle or drivers licence fees; they don’t recognise the need to submit to anyone – but themselves. This is a recipe for utter chaos, for anarchy.

What these people forget is that their freedom to act as they wish stops at the point when my freedoms (such as they are) begin.  What these people forget is that living in any society requires compromise – and I repeat, their freedom stops where my freedom begins. This is why we have laws and a legal system – to determine where that point is – where their freedom stops and mine begin. 

What these people conveniently forget (or never realised) is that nothing they do is in isolation. What these people maybe don’t even comprehend is that there is an unwritten Law of Unintended Consequences (or the Law or Cause and Effect).

Whatever these “sovereign citizens” do will affect others and whatever others do will affect them, in ways they cannot even begin to imagine – this is how society works. Don’t “sovereign citizens” drive their unlicensed and unregistered cars on roads paid for with tax-payers money? If injured would they not attend a health facility paid for with someone’s money? What about schooling for their children? Someone, if not them, pays for that! If a natural disaster affected them – a flood, a fire or some such event, who would they turn to for help? I would guess that it would be the government!

I have to admit that I cannot comprehend the level of selfishness; the level of indifference to others; the lack of respect shown to others (respect which they demand for themselves) and most importantly the lack of understanding, these so called “citizens” display. It would appear to me that they are showing distinct symptoms of Narcissism. This can be quite a serious psychological condition.

This is my take on the curious and disturbing phenomenon of “sovereign citizens” – for what it’s worth.