These are the days. These are the days when men and women accept draconian measures as if they were trifles.
The nation and the world come grinding to a halt, and it is just another "interruption."
In
1776, there was a revolution against restraints from a foreign power.
Now there is bleating from domestic governors about lockdowns, tracing,
testing, vaccinating, and the majority of the populace obeys these
tyrants without question. Even with loyalty.
Birthed after blood
and sacrifice, national government in the United States was severely
hamstrung, in order to prevent abuses of power. But it has become the
teat, the Giver and the Taker. The wanton parent.
And now for decades, people have shrugged: "What harm could come from a government giving gifts?"
People say, "What harm could come from schools that don't teach history? We already have freedom. Who cares how we got it?"
The exalted nature of Liberty has been disposed of in a sea of amnesia.
"Liberty
is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest
political end. It is not for the sake of a good public administration
that it is required, but for security in the pursuit of the highest
objects of civil society, and of private life." (Lord Acton, 1877)
"There
is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be
to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."
(John Adams, 1772)
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the
tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom,
go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down
and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you,
and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." (Samuel Adams,
1776)
"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion." (Edmund Burke, 1784)
Does
none of this matter now? Are pacification and passivity the cardinal
virtues? If so, I suggest a new Constitution, where we can enshrine
these qualities with official language and be done with it.
BILL OF RIGHTS:
ONE: Shout "this is science!" when anyone threatens the power of government.
TWO:
Censor dissent for the sake of public safety, according to guidelines
laid down by government and corporations. Disrupt the lives of
dissenters.
THREE: Give up Liberty when the authorities demand it.
That is all. Done.
We threw off the King of England so we could have YouTube and Facebook.
Exalted Liberty, tossed overboard into a sea of hypnotic assurance.
"Perhaps
the enemies of liberty are such only because they judge it by its loud
voice. If they knew its charms, the dignity that accompanies it, how
much a free man feels like a king, the perpetual inner light that is
produced by decorous self-awareness and realization, perhaps there would
be no greater friends of freedom than those who are its worst
enemies." (Jose Marti, 1893)
"What light is to the eyes, what
love is to the heart, Liberty is to the soul of man. Without it, there
come suffocation, degradation and death." (Robert G Ingersoll, 1887)
If
I had a child, I would home school him, and for a year we would do
nothing but delve deeply into these and other remembrances of Liberty,
re-establishing its exalted nature. For those of you who do have
children, that is what I suggest.
An education of mind, body, heart, and soul.
Where Liberty once was.
That
creature called socialism is, in effect, the transfer of any remaining
Liberty to government, based on the fatuous hope that giving complete
power to a tyrannical force will somehow reform that force and transform
it into a messiah. And this is the best formulation. A more realistic
appraisal would be: socialism is a notorious promoted enslavement,
whereby elite men behind a curtain preach Centralized Authority as
Kindness and Fairness, in order to raise an army of idealistic ravening
wolves who will dispossess the people of everything they own.
Obviously,
in order for this operation to succeed, the people must have forgotten
that ANY quality of The Individual could occupy an exalted and eternal
position---a quality such as Liberty.
Once upon a time, defiant
poetry about Liberty from oppression could move armies. The stakes were
as high as they have ever been.
From history[dot]com:
"...General George Washington's troops were encamped at McKonkey's Ferry
on the Delaware River opposite Trenton, New Jersey. In August, they had
suffered humiliating defeats and lost New York City to British troops.
Between September and December, 11,000 American volunteers gave up the
fight and returned to their families. General Washington could foresee
the destiny of a rebellion without an army if the rest of his men
returned home when their service contracts expired on December 31. He
knew that without an upswing in morale and a significant victory, the
American Revolution would come to a swift and humiliating end."
"...[Thomas
Paine's] Common Sense was the clarion call that began the revolution.
As Washington's troops retreated from New York through New Jersey, Paine
again rose to the challenge of literary warfare. With another pamphlet]
American Crisis, he delivered the words that would salvage the
revolution."
"Washington commanded that the freshly printed
pamphlet be read aloud to his dispirited men; the rousing prose had its
intended effect. Reciting Paine's impassioned words, the beleaguered
troops mustered their remaining hopes for victory and crossed the icy
Delaware River to defeat hung-over Hessians on Christmas night and on
January 2, the British army's best general, Earl Cornwallis, at the
Battle of Princeton. With victory in New Jersey, Washington won not only
two battles, but also the love and thanks of man and woman."
Paine's
famous words: "THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer
soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the
service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love
and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily
conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the
conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we
esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its
value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it
would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not
be highly rated."
Paine wrote more: "...I have as little
superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever
been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to
military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so
earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by
every decent method which wisdom could invent."
"Neither have I
so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the
government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils..."
"...in
the fourteenth century the whole English army, after ravaging the
kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and
this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and
headed by a woman, Joan of Arc."
"...Let it be told to the future
world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue
could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common
danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it."
"...Say not that
thousands [of soldiers] are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw
not the burden of the day upon Providence, but 'show your faith by your
works,' that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what
rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The
far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor,
will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the
blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a
time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I
love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from
distress, and grow brave by reflection. ' Tis the business of little
minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience
approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death...."
The contest is not over. It is never over. |
No comments:
Post a Comment