In my first substantive post on this blog, entitled "What are the legitimate functions of Government?" ( link here) I pointed out that asking that question of yourself is an important first step when considering any legislative proposal. It is the basic question that, heart-breakingly, almost never gets asked, either by the politicians who ought to know better, or the people that they supposedly represent. In part that is because the answer from virtually every side of the issue, is pretty awkward. Socialists find it awkward because they generally do not want to admit what they are trying to do. Those who believe in individual liberty find that question awkward, because the way things are now is so far from the way that they were supposed to be that it is difficult for them to accept, and still harder to explain without the really awkward question- "how did this happen?"
This country was founded as a representative republic, which has now mutated into a socialistic police state, and one of the reasons that this cancerous coup has happened is that almost nobody asks themselves, or anybody else, "What are the legitimate functions of Government?". When did Americans stop asking questions? Who is responsible for this ugly state of affairs? Can we blame the collectivists among us? Really?
The forces of collectivism have been with us since the dawn of time, for the second raters, the sub-competent, those desperate for excuses, have been with us also, and it is to those that collectivism appeals. As long as there are people, there will be those few who seek to blame others for their failures, and seek shelter from the relentless law of reality that states that no entity may consume more than they produce, and there will also be those who take advantage of that ignoble reality. But why are they making such advances when right, reason and rationality are against them?
It is because many of us who enjoy the fruits of freedom have failed to hold our principles sancrosanct that we are losing the war of ideas. We abandoned the ideas of the Enlightenment, and let the forces of totalitarianism win by default. We would have been rude, we told ourselves, people will think that we are loony, bucking the status quo, we'd be unpatriotic to question the government, we said. We did not want to ask and especially did not want to listen to the answers to those awkward, embarrassing questions. We stopped our mouths, closed our ears, covered our eyes and failed to ask the right questions, or to insist on answers. We compromised our ideals, and we stopped asking questions, especially awkward, rude, or pointed ones. That needs to stop if we who live in these presently united States are to survive as civilized people.
What are the legitimate functions of government? To protect individual rights. Is that what the federal government of these presently united States is doing?
Where does government get its authority? The founding documents of these presently united States say that a just government of a free people derives its authority from the consent of each of the people that it governs. To the extent that a government lacks consent, it lacks legitimacy. Do you, gentle reader, consent to the tyranny that the collectivist totalitarians are foisting upon you?
Collectivists have reaped tremendous benefit from deliberate confusion about country and government. Can a patriot love his country and hate his government? What is the difference between the two?
Are rights in a representative republic subject to redefinition by popular vote? Centuries of common law, Enlightenment philosophy and the Founders said 'No'. Isn't that what the present illegitimate occupiers of the Spite House are trying to do?
By what right? By what code? By what standard?
Why do you consent to the myriad outrages of those presently in authority?
Have you shunned any FedGoons today? This week? Ever? Broken any windows? Given the finger to any Natpopo thugs?
How do your chains taste?
Why do you consent to wear them?
When the rule of law has broken down, and those who wield authority illegitimately break the law with no way to hold them accountable, what is your recourse?
These are all awkward questions, and they are all important, but until YOU start asking them, and start to look at the answers, you are part of the problem. Resistance begins in the mind, by breaking the habit of obedience to authority, by asking awkward questions, insisting on finding the answers, and being willing to look at the naked truth, as ugly as it may be. Before you can find the motivation to break the windows of the oppressors, you must break their hold on your mind. You must withdraw your consent from those who would hold you blind and ignorant, and start to seek the truth. You have been endowed to the core of your very essence as a sapient being with the ability to ask questions, to seek answers, to evaluate the facts and to find the truth, and YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO DO THIS! You have a duty to do this, as an American, as a human.
"Why do my eyes hurt?"
"You've never used them." (from the film "the Matrix.")
Will you take the Red Pill, gentle reader? Will you, gentle reader, continue to blindly lick your chains and whine about the taste, or will you open your eyes and break them? Are you willing to ask the awkward questions, and listen to the painful answers? Do you have the strength to seek the truth?
with regards to all who serve the Light, and with warm regard to those of you out there who are asking awkward questions,
Historian