The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

The Four Boxes of Liberty

The four boxes of liberty are an idea that proposes: "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order.", as explained in the Wikipedia article:

“The soap box represents exercising one's right to freedom of speech to influence politics to defend liberty. The ballot box represents exercising one's right to vote to elect a government which defends liberty. The jury box represents using jury nullification to refuse to convict someone being prosecuted for breaking an unjust law that decreases liberty. The cartridge (ammo) box represents exercising one's right to keep and bear arms to oppose, in armed conflict, a government that decreases liberty. The four boxes (in that order) represent increasingly forceful (and increasingly controversial) methods of political action.”

They are not only a guide as to the best means to defend our Liberties and Freedoms, but they are also a guide to the best way to strip us of our Liberties and Freedoms. To deprive us, in order, of our four boxes of liberty is the best means to achieve despotism, and any one or group that attempts this deprivation is attempting to impose despotism.

The Soap Box

This box refers to our First Amendment Rights as I have Chirped on, “10/21/20 The Natural Right of Freedom of Conscience”. We not only have the liberty to exercise these rights, but we must have the freedom to not be sanctioned for exercising these rights. Today’s “Cancel Culture”, “Who Needs Government Suppression When You Have Big Tech Suppression?”, and "The Three D's (Demonize, Denigrate, Disparage) of Modern Political Debate" are an attempt to sanction anyone who would exercise these rights in disagreement with the Progressive, Leftists, and Democrat Party policy positions. It is perfectly fine to critique, sometimes criticize, and occasionally admonish someone who disagrees with you, but it is not fine to try to intimidate into silence someone who disagrees with you. Any attempt to sanction someone is an attempt to impinge on their liberties, to instill fear of retaliation, and to deprive them of their soapbox.

The Ballot Box

This box refers to elections as the means that the citizens of a nation can protect themselves from oppression by government authorities. However, it requires free and fair elections to be effective. Elections that are tainted by voting irregularities, illegal activities, or Unconstitutional means are not free and fair, and call into question the legitimacy of an election. In a Free and Fair election the electors can vote out the oppressors and vote in the defenders of Freedom and Liberty. The Ballot Box is the best means for the people to maintain their Freedoms and Liberties. However, it is also possible in an election to vote for oppressors that would constrict our Freedoms and Liberties. It should be remembered that a majority cannot vote for our Natural, Human, and Civil Rights to be violated, for these rights are supreme to any governmental actions. The voter should always remember that "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty", and we should be vigilant about for whom we vote and not vote for any oppression of our rights nor for any politician that would suppress our rights. We, therefore, need to be cognizant of the actions of politicians that may violate our Freedoms and Liberties when voting, as well as the issues I have raised in my articles Voting in America and Voting Responsibilities to assure free and fair elections.  

The Jury Box

This box refers to Jury Nullification, which generally occurs when members of a criminal trial jury believe that a defendant is guilty, but choose to acquit the defendant anyway. This is often done because the jurors consider that the law itself is unjust, that the prosecutor has misapplied the law in the defendant's case, or that the potential punishment for breaking the law is too harsh. Some juries have also refused to convict due to their own prejudices in favor of the defendant. By having ordinary citizens sit in a Jury Box and reach a verdict, they have the power to nullify those prosecutions that they consider unjust or a violation of our Natural, Human, and Civil Rights. This Jury Nullification can be unwisely used, but an independent Judiciary dedicated to "Justice and The Rule of Law in America" minimizes the possibility of Jury Nullification and assures A Just Government and a Just Society.

The Ammo Box

This box refers to the statement in the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

When our Freedoms and Liberties are disregarded or abrogated by the government, the people have the right to abolish such a government through the force of arms if the normal democratic processes cannot achieve the necessary corrections. Arms that are protected by our Second Amendment Rights as I have Chirped on, “10/24/20 The Natural Right of Self-Protection”. Arms that are necessary to overturn a government that believes that they can direct or control a free people, as only a subjugated or subservient people can be directed or controlled.

Please use in that order

This is an admonishment of means to properly defend our liberties. It is also a warning of how authoritarian regimes suppress the Freedoms and Liberties of their citizens. It is the deprivation of the Soap Box, the Ballot Box, and the Jury Box that led Colonial Americans to resort to the Ammo Box to obtain their Freedoms and Liberties from their English oppressors during the Revolutionary War. This is usually what happens in all modern revolutions against an established government that suppresses the Soap Box, the Ballot Box, and the Jury Box.

For those that would respond that most of the American people have supported these governmental actions, I would retort that the majority does not get to impose its will on the minority, for that is antithetical to Natural and Constitutional Rights. I would also remind you that during the American Revolution, John Adams, one of the leading proponents of the Declaration of Independence, a founder of the Constitution, and the second President of the United States, said about majority support. When asked how many of the colonists supported the American Revolution, he stated that about one-third supported it, one-third opposed it, and one-third had no opinion on it. Clearly not a majority in support of the American Revolution. Should we have not fought the American Revolution as it did not have majority support? Absolutely not – as revolutions are often fought by a minority that feels oppressed by the majority. So, it should be for those that are resisting governmental actions that disregarded or abrogated our Freedoms and Liberties by the government. They are standing up for our Natural and Constitutional rights, and although they may be in the minority, they have the right to stand up for our Natural and Constitutional Rights through the Ammo Box.

This is, unfortunately, what is starting to occur in 21st century America through the suppressions and corruptions of the Soap Box, the Ballot Box, and the Jury Box. Let us hope that we can change this so that we do not have to reach for the Ammo Box to assure our Freedoms and Liberties.