How much control do I really have, as a citizen of this country? I mean, how many new political parties would we have to create to 'really' make a difference in the grand scheme of things? Let's say that I have a problem, a serious problem, like for instance, I have had my property unlawfully confiscated, my children taken from me and my life threatened. What should I do? My education tells me that I should turn to law enforcement and the justice system for help, but suppose it is precisely those entities who have caused the problem?
As I thought about this today, I couldn't help thinking of the slaves in colonial America. Perhaps there were many who were somewhat content to work for their 'masters', but there were surely many more who regretted the circumstances in which they found themselves trapped. If they wished to make any change in their condition, to whom should they appeal since law-enforcement did not recognize them as citizens? Should they appeal to their master? If the master was the reason for their complaint, what then? And if they did appeal for redress to the very person who had imposed the injury, what could they possibly hope to gain? If I were in such a position I might be tempted to feel a certain hopelessness. Come to think of it, I do.
Are we in any different circumstance than the slave, who, when he has done his day's work is rewarded not with the full salary due him for his time, but a meager existence for which he is deemed worthy and suited? Our earnings are unflinchingly stolen from us at the point of a gun by an unlawful agency bent on equalizing society. We are handed in return, a remnant of our earnings with which to 'make do' and are told in no uncertain terms that it is our duty as citizens of this 'great nation' to pay for everything that it gives us. Never mind that what it 'gives' us is what IT chooses to bestow and that it also conveniently decides what is 'best'. Compulsory schooling, mandatory drug testing, seat belts and airport security are just a few of the thousands of things bestowed, out-of-the-goodness-of-their-hearts-to- improve-our-lives-and-how-could-we-be-so-unpatriotic-as-to-not-want-all-of-that-for-EVERYONE?
It was when they got to the 'everyone' part that I began to choke. I was raised reading the New American, a publication of the John Birch Society of which my mother was a member. As a youth I gleaned that the thing that set nearly all other societies apart from this free one was that they were trying, by force, to equalize, share the wealth, and make prosperity mandatory for everyone. It seemed to me that they had an overdeveloped sense of 'fair'. So much so that they wanted to MAKE everything fair for everyone. That, however, is as absurd as 'making' the clouds go away so that the sun shines equally on everyone. Why could they not see how stupid it was? Every single set of people who have attempted such a foolish venture has not only failed miserably, but has caused the death and misery of tremendous numbers of people. So, did we just miss that lesson in history? Oh, I forgot, they aren't teaching history. How convenient. Now they can make that mistake all over again and WE get to be the lucky ones to learn the lessons again, first-hand.
I do not want life to be made fair for everyone. Radical, I know. I want everyone to learn from his own mistakes, I want the right to choose what mistakes I make, I want the right to fail and I want everyone else to have those rights. Instead, wrapped in pseudo-constitutional-type language we are force-fed freedom of speech in a global community (with world courts to tell us which speeches are free and which are not), freedom of worship worship (not religion, mind you but worship of God, obviously forgetting that some do not), the deceptive freedom from want (at some poor dope's expense, by the way) and freedom from fear (as if anyone could actually give or grant such a highly personal and individual attainment).
This is Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the State of the Union Address to the Congress, January 6, 1941:
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
This is the 'Vision of the World' that is being inflicted upon us right now. Who gave him the right to remake the world anyway? Every paragraph takes our eyes and focuses them on “the world” as though there were really some sort of obligation on the part of Americans to fix it. The absolute inanity of such reasoning as evidenced by these dreadful specters of political weaponry is beyond comprehension. I want to shout to someone that there is no such thing as freedom from want, and freedom from fear unless you are dead! Living means want, or in the words of William Goldman, “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” And now, whether we like it or not, we are buying it.
These people not only want to take away ALL challenges from everyone, but they want to FORCE everyone to pay for the ride. They of course will take their cut off the top first, while they watch the rest of us writhe in deadly, compulsory equality. Just try to struggle free from the bonds upon your wrists, your feet, your mind, your life. They will only become tighter with each show of defiance. That was how rebellious slaves were controlled and that is how we are controlled today. Yes, 'are' and not 'will be'. Even if (and that's a BIG if) every good person suddenly knew all the right things and began doing them, and even if everyone was armed with the tools of change for the better, there is still the issue of actual power to be dealt with. Remember the slave, who, though he were dying at the hands of his evil master, had no other recourse than to appeal to his master. The master had the law, the money, the man-power and the know-how on his side. The slave only had his discontent. I have a powerful lot of discontent myself, but again, like our friend the slave, I have little else of any use in the case.
Back to my original question: How much control do I really have? What can I do about all the crap that seems to happen around me, and to me, with which I am far less than happy and which, like a slave, has cost me the better part of my dignity and humanity to endure? If I call for redress from the 'masters' of my society, when it is they who have inflicted the blow, how much redress can I expect?
If you guessed 'none', go to the head of the class. Personally, I'm holding out for a miracle. Of course that would be Miracle with a capital M. Nothing less will do, I'm afraid. Nothing at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment