³⁴Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, those having been favoured, belonging to my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world order. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. ³⁶I had little clothing and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in jail and you came to me.”

Matthew 25: 34-36 – The Keys of the Kingdom Holy Bible

¹⁸’The spirit of the Lord is over me, on account of which He has anointed me to proclaim the gospel to the poor; He has authorised me to heal the broken-hearted, ¹⁹to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to send off in deliverance those having been crushed, to proclaim the welcome year of the Lord.’

Luke 4: 18-19 – The Keys of the Kingdom Holy Bible

Picture courtesy of Enrico Hanel, Pexels

In July 2022, I wrote about the Foundationist community, which is the most original and creative work of ‘Carbon Mike’ also known as Dexter Taylor. For those who haven’t read my summary, you can find it here:

What should we be looking for in a new Prime Minister?

As I write this, my friend Mike has just been convicted in a court in New York and is in the notorious Riker Island prison, awaiting sentence that will take place on 13^th May. As with anything to do with the US legal system, it’s complicated, but I’m grateful to Andrew Mahon, a fellow Foundationist, for the following summary of the case:

“On the 16th of April, Dexter Taylor was convicted by a New York court on multiple counts of ‘Felony Weapons Possession’, relating to the construction of so-called “Ghost Guns”. His sentencing is May 13th and he faces up to 18 years in prison. 

A software developer by profession, Dexter likes building things, including computer programs, recording studios, furniture, and firearms. His crime is being an amateur gunsmith, who legally bought parts online and assembled rifles and pistols in his home. By his own admission, he’s a nerd who thinks firearms are cool; he gave all his rifles names. He was a member in good standing of his local gun club, which required him to pass a criminal background check. A 53-year old father and neighbour, with no history of criminality, Dexter is currently on Rikers Island, facing years in prison, as his legal team attempts to appeal this decision to the federal level.

Meanwhile, violent criminals who actually harm innocent people are routinely given lenient sentences. Those of us who value individual human beings as persons with inherent dignity, made in God’s image, have a hard time understanding this disparity. We know it’s politically motivated. But surely, we think, every decent person can see the injustice here.

Unfortunately, a large part of society views human beings differently. They see them as representatives of groups involved in a system shaped and governed by power dynamics. On this view, every bad thing that happens is a consequence of the oppression of one group over another, ultimately of the entire system that has oppression built into it. To them, society is a zero-sum game, where the success of one person, enabled by his membership in a privileged group, is always at the expense of another person, hindered by his membership in an oppressed group.

The thug who shoots innocent people with an illegal gun is primarily a victim of the system that oppresses him. More to the point, he’s merely an instance of the broader collective victimhood. He’s from a poor black neighbourhood, or he’s an illegal immigrant from a poverty-stricken country, and he only commits acts of violence because he has no choice. If society were restructured to elevate his victim group, he’d probably be an academic, a doctor, or a business executive. In other words, it’s not his fault that he shoots people; it’s the system’s fault. The imperative must be to change the system.

Dexter Taylor, on the other hand, is reinforcing the system by attempting to exercise his Second Amendment rights. Although a black man himself, and therefore eligible to be an instance of that victim group, he is a scandal to the ideology by not acting his part. Instead, he’s behaving as if the system founded upon the US Constitution is a positive thing by which he can benefit as an individual, whatever the colour of his skin. This cannot be allowed, if one embraces the oppressor-victim paradigm. He must be crushed ruthlessly.

In order to rebalance the inequitable system of oppression, the state must be all-powerful, the individual powerless and dependent. Legally to bear arms is out of the question. On the other hand, Illegal gun ownership and the resulting crime is proof of an inequitable system that must be remedied, with, among other measures, gun restrictions on upstanding citizens like Dexter. Real criminals can be treated leniently, while the system is rebalanced.

Underpinning all this is the erroneous and dangerous belief that criminals are not bad, but just oppressed. All crime is sickness. Criminals must be healed, and not punished. The only bad people are those, like Dexter, who disagree with this ambitious enterprise. They are an impediment to the utopia which will emerge once the system is rebalanced, the state all-powerful, and the individual nothing but a particle and pawn of the state.

The laws Dexter has been convicted of breaking are unlikely to survive a constitutional challenge at the federal level. But it will take years to get to the federal level, with no guarantee that his case will be heard. He couldn’t even introduce the argument of constitutionality in his trial. “Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom,” the judge said. “It doesn’t exist here.” The details of this legal battle are being covered elsewhere. Dexter has given numerous interviews, relating his story. You can donate to his legal fund here.

But I want to end with a few words about Dexter himself. 

Dexter Taylor, aka Carbon Mike, is a podcaster and the founder of the Foundationist Society, an online community of like-minded people around the world who have been influenced and inspired by Dexter. 

Foundationism, Dexter says, is “the politics of people who build things.” The ten precepts of Foundationism are:

See deeply

Listen closely

Reason honestly

Speak clearly

Act bravely

Deny the self

Defend the individual

Respect tradition

Face the present

Cultivate the future

Dexter has spoken eloquently on each of these in a series of podcasts with fellow Foundationist Danny Doran, on the Infinite Jigsaw Podcast.

Ideas, political or otherwise, like buildings and software, nations and families, need to be built on the proper foundations. Dexter founded a political movement designed in part to lift people out of the intellectual sickness that makes them susceptible to a Marxist-inspired pseudo-religion, by calling on them to analyze the foundation of their ideas. Now he’s being persecuted by forces possessed by that very sickness.

On a personal level, I have known Dexter for about four years. When my work dried up during Covid lockdowns, and I sought to acquire new skills, I heard a podcast in which he said he’d teach anyone how to build software. I contacted him and he taught me how to design and create computer databases, giving me a weekly one-on-one session, at no charge. He helped me to explore and develop business ideas that I had, applying the skills he’d given me. Later, he invited me on his podcast to discuss a self-published book I had written, and he included some of my articles in the Foundationist Society newsletter, Cornerstone. There are many of us in the Foundationist Society who feel indebted to Dexter.

He is a deep thinker of great intelligence, an extremely productive member of society, a patriot who values personal relationships, and a selfless man devoted to his family, friends and his community. I’m proud to call myself a Foundationist, and even more proud to call Dexter a friend. His treatment by the criminal justice system is a travesty.”

Andrew’s statement puts the situation more eloquently than I could ever hope to. I’m acutely aware that we have a very different view of firearms here in the UK than they have in the USA. But I’m asking those who might be inclined to look at the case and decide that they disagree with US law, to put that behind them, and look simply at the appalling situation that Mike/Dexter’s judge has effectively said: ‘Don’t bring the “law” into this Courtroom. I disagree with it, and I am therefore going to behave as though the “law” doesn’t exist.’

Surely all of us, however anti-firearms we may be, can see the horror of being convicted on such a basis? How would you feel if someone you loved was convicted to many years in jail for breaking the law as their detractors wanted it to be, rather than as it is?

Please do spread the word about poor Mike’s cause. He faces years in jail and eyewatering legal fees, to fight what appears to be a highly politicised legal system, where what matters is not the law as it is, but the law as those who disagree with us politically would like it to be? Isn’t that the definition of a nightmare?

Heavenly Father, you experienced the pain of injustice during your own trial and conviction. We know that you understand, and we know that justice is one of the central planks of Christianity. Please bring resilience to Mike and his family and the knowledge that they are not alone. And please guide others to help him in his fight for justice. Amen