A Little Hasty?

In the interest of keeping my own self accountable and honest, I was compelled to revisit the Texas Polygamy case and my quick-draw post on the matter prior to taking in anything but the initial report.

Billy points to three posts by Wendy McElroy here, here, and here. It's the latter of those three he's referencing. I think she's dead on about the women from the perspective of 3rd party intervention. There's no plausible way they couldn't leave or explicitly call for help if they wanted.

Having read over what I posted, I still think my general point is valid, which is that rational men, unbound by "The People" fallacy, might have taken care of that mess long ago. Of course, they would have been totally accountable for whatever actions they took, and had they found it necessary to dispatch the rapists and those giving aid and comfort to the rapists (the adult wives), then they would have also been responsible for the well being of all the children as far into the future as it takes. Not saying that's what should have happened at all; just what if.

Ghastly? Perhaps, but the prospect strikes me as less arbitrary and less risky than the current situation. In the former, you have people sincerely acting upon conviction and principle to protect innocent people they have strong reason to believe are being abused against their will, and/or have been fraudulently denied a normal human will. In the latter, you have state and law enforcement authorities primarily out for headlines, camera face time whilst all dressed G.I. Joe, promotion files, commendations, and so on and so forth. Add to that, as Waco and Ruby Ridge proved: there's no real accountability for their actions when they become the predators.

I believe there are young girls there, lots of them, who though perhaps not being physically forced into sex with far older men (beyond the natural force that partly defines the act), are nonetheless indoctrinated into believing they have no choice. In my book, that's just a rape packaged in a fraud, both of which a rational libertarian ought to condemn. The reason these people put themselves and children into compounds is in part to grease the wheels of indoctrination, such that children literally have no concrete concepts of what is right and wrong stemming from their own perceptual integration. What does that mean? That means that if you, as a parent, shield your children from what the real stakes are in the real world so that they may grow to understand and act rationally within it, then you are neglecting your children. And if you then use their ignorance to take an advantage you otherwise would not be able to take, then you are being abusive.

So I find myself in an odd attitude about it. I loath the state. I loath those people. I think it's anyone's business to reasonably assure that defenseless kids aren't being sexually abused when there's a very bright suspicion they are.