Freedom’s Eleventh Hour - From Apathy back into Bondage
Freedom’s Eleventh Hour - From Apathy back into Bondage
In two recent columns, I spelled out the two primary opposing agendas prevalent in modern American politics, The American Pursuit of Democratic Socialism and To Be Conservative in America.
Article one above
Article two above
If I could get every American to read just three columns, it would be these two and the one you are reading now. Armed with the reality displayed in these three columns, the only people who can effect real worthwhile change in America would be more likely to do so.
Without knowledge of at least these fundamental facts, the American electorate is on a path to self-destruction via democratic process, American freedom and individual liberty is at its eleventh hour and the pace into a socialist abyss is quickening.
Why American Freedom is in its Eleventh Hour
A well-known self-destructive cycle of democratic behavior has been attributed to an eighteenth century historian by the name of Alexander Tytler. Whether Tytler is the original author or not, the concept of democratic self-destruction has been proven accurate, right here in America.
“From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”
The cycle identifies eight stages of a process which demonstrates exactly how history tends to repeat itself. America finds itself in the seventh stage as it heads into the 2008 election, where it will decide whether or not to leap headlong into stage eight. Here’s how it happened and what the 2008 election is really all about.
From Bondage To Spiritual Faith, To Great Courage, To Liberty
America’s founding fathers were all men of great spiritual faith who had escaped political and religious bondage in Europe. It was that faith that drove them and gave them the courage to seek a new land of freedom and individual liberty, where they could design and build a nation where all men were created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, chief among them the right to Life itself, individual Liberty and the right to individually define and pursue (earn) Happiness.
The Founders designed and established a limited government which was to be of, by and for the people, the governed, and they established 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…”
From Liberty To Abundance And Abundance To Complacency
It was individual freedom and liberty that gave every American the right and the motivation to create the most productive, prosperous and abundant nation ever known to man. And it is the earned abundance that would lead the wealthiest nation on earth into a state of complacency.
America is not only the most productive and abundant nation on earth. It is also the most generous nation on earth. For more than two centuries, Americans have not only been willing to share their wealth with many less fortunate societies around the globe, but also our technologies, the very philosophies that made us abundant, and even our blood, so that other peoples all over the world could share in freedom, independence and prosperity.
Extended periods of peace and prosperity have resulted in American complacency and today, generations who no longer understand the foundations of our abundance, what it took to achieve it and what it takes to conserve or preserve it for future generations, are on the verge of losing it all.
From Abundance To Complacency And Complacency To Apathy
Apathy, “an absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement; - lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting.”
American abundance and complacency led to apathy years ago, when half of all American voters stopped taking the time to engage in self-governance at all, not even finding so much as an hour of their time once every four years to go to a voting booth and play a part in deciding the direction of their free nation.
The other half of America who does still engage and vote, are caught up in an insane debate over Democrat vs. Republican, Liberal vs. Conservative, Black vs. White and Poor vs. Rich. The real issue goes largely unnoticed.
While the political discussion is misdirected and limited to a laundry list of special interest issues, the real debate over Individual Rights vs. Communal Rights is silenced as “hate speech” or “greed” in the name of “political correctness.”
And as half of the nation is complacent in their mindless debate, the other half completely apathetic to the entire process, America votes itself into Democratic Socialism and from apathy into dependence.
From Apathy To Dependence
A short one hundred years ago, when our nation was building the infrastructure of the greatest nation on earth, our federal government and its budget was but a mere insignificant fraction of our gross productivity and nobody was dependent upon the federal government for their personal well-being. Every man, woman and child, was free to define and pursue (earn) their own destiny and no American looked to the federal government as their personal nanny.
One hundred years later, a complacent people turned apathetic towards self-governance has forgotten to remain forever vigilant in its conservation and preservation of the fundamental belief structure that made it all possible.
Today, an increasing number of Americans are now dependent upon the federal government and the federal trough for their happiness. Every national election is about what our federal government can do for us personally, not what we are able to do for ourselves as a result of individual freedom and liberty in the land of equal promise.
Increasingly ill-suited to navigate the individual choices inherent with freedom, a growing number of Americans have come to rely (depend) upon politicians and their government to solve personal challenges they no longer feel capable of solving themselves.
Socialized medicine is being sold as “universal health care.” Government control of the people’s private natural resources is being sold as “environmentalism.” The government confiscation of private earned assets, land, money and individual rights, tyranny for benefit of a greater common good, are being sold as a forced form of “communal generosity” and “community obligation.” The constant attack on “Capitalism” is sold as reigning in “evil corporations.”
This is what Hillary Clinton means when she says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Or “We are going to take some things away from you, for the greater good.” It is what all modern liberals mean in their quest to replace individual freedom and liberty with government controlled equality.
Of course, it’s also what Karl Marx meant when he said “From each according to his ability; To each according to his need.”
From Dependence Back Into Bondage
The final stage of the cycle is the fall back into bandage. Thomas Jefferson provided the perfect warning with this statement, “A government big enough to give you anything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.”
According to the IRS as of 2005, 70 percent of all taxes and thereby 70 percent of the American budget, is paid for by only 10 percent of Americans, those evil bastards we call “the rich.” Likewise, the bottom 50 percent of income earners now pay little or no taxes at all. Many of them get tax refunds on taxes they never paid to begin with. “From each according to his ability; To each according to his need.” Remember?
We accept this as a “graduated tax scale” whereby the “haves” are responsible for paying the tax burden of the “have-nots.” It is nothing more than an acceptable level and method of socialism, social engineering and forceful taking of earned assets from one, for benefit of another deemed more deserving. A re-distribution of wealth; - a taking from one according to his ability; given to another on the basis of his need.
Americans are Voting for Bondage via Democratic Socialism
A small segment of the American populace is knowingly pursuing an American democratic form of socialism. But a much larger segment of American voters are unwittingly voting for democratic socialism, to forever increase the size, scope and reach of the federal government in the name of some greater common good, without realizing that what Jefferson and many other Founders warned was true. “A government big enough to give you anything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.”
From Freedom Back Into Bondage
The 2008 election is all about this decision. Today’s Democrat Party calls itself “the party of the working man” (aka the working class, the proletariat). But it makes policy promises as the Party of the non-working man, forever promising equal economic status for those who refuse or fail to pursue (earn) happiness on their own. This is the promise that all of their electoral support is based upon. Every Democrat voter seeks to vote themselves (or their neighbor) favors from the federal trough.
Every modern democrat voter seeks to take the rightful earnings of others by force, to serve their idea of a greater common good.
And by this method, they are voting not only those whom they seek to rob of their earnings back into bondage, but themselves as well.
The politicians they ask to define and provide equal happiness to all do not make these campaign promises on behalf of the greater common good of their voters. They make these promises for the greater good of their own political power. This has been true of all who have ever made these promises throughout history.
Our Founders Knew This Reality. But Too Many Americans Do Not.
United upon founding principles, we have stood as the world’s beacon of individual freedom and liberty for more than 230 years. But divided as we are today, the nation is collapsing. Though we are at war with many international enemies who do indeed seek to bring an end to America as we know it, no threat is greater than the threat posed from within, American against American.
Americans, from the CEO to the janitor, the ditch digger to the Hollywood star, the least among us to the 10 percent who currently pick up the national tab, must unite upon fundamental American values and principles in order to conserve and preserve our greatness for future generations.
We will alter our voting habits and the government that results now, or we will soon have no option but to abolish it and start over.
It’s not just our right to alter or abolish a government which has become destructive of these principles and values, it is our obligation.
In a few months, Americans will make a decision. We will decide to either leap headlong into the socialist abyss with Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, or stem the tide by voting against those who seek political power via Democratic Socialism.
The choice is just this simple and just this serious. Study reality and make the choice carefully. We will alter the direction of our federal government today, or abolish it tomorrow.
This is indeed, freedom’s eleventh hour…
