Sunday, May 3, 2020

It’s Up To Us Now

     Many have been petitioning and pleading for government(s) to “give us back our freedom.” Whoever accepted the premise behind this – i.e., that freedom is something awarded to the subject by the State – is badly in need of remedial historical education.

Freedom is not “given;” it is taken.
By force if necessary…which it usually is.

     Consider all these recent emissions and incidents:

     Governments at every level are flexing their muscles. They’re testing you, probing to see how much they can do to you before you rebel. Some of them are even pre-announcing sharp tax increases, to “make up for the shortfall during the lockdown.” And of course we’ve all heard about the mass releases of convicted felons, including serial killers and pedophiles, haven’t we? The State has to make room for the anti-lockdown protesters, doesn’t it?

     Regard them well: episodes in the march of anarcho-tyranny:

     What we have in this country today, then, is both anarchy (the failure of the state to enforce the laws) and, at the same time, tyranny – the enforcement of laws by the state for oppressive purposes; the criminalization of the law-abiding and innocent through exorbitant taxation, bureaucratic regulation, the invasion of privacy, and the engineering of social institutions, such as the family and local schools; the imposition of thought control through "sensitivity training" and multiculturalist curricula, "hate crime" laws, gun-control laws that punish or disarm otherwise law-abiding citizens but have no impact on violent criminals who get guns illegally, and a vast labyrinth of other measures. In a word, anarcho-tyranny. [From the essay Synthesizing Tyranny, written shortly before Francis’s death.]

     Well? Where’s the line? How much will you sit still for before you rear up on your hind legs, take back your freedom, and – in the ideal case – punish your oppressors?

     What’s that? Your gaolers are reassuring you that the fetters they’ve fastened upon you are necessary? That it’s all “for your own good?”

     Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. – William Pitt
     The real freedom of any individual can always be measured by the amount of responsibility which he must assume for his own welfare and security. – Robert Welch

     The crowning irony of all this is that the data are in: COVID-19 / Kung Flu / Lung Pao Sicken / Wuhan Virus is seriously dangerous only to the exact same cohorts endangered by common influenza: the very young and the very old. Most infectees, as has been demonstrated on naval vessels and at military installations, don’t even exhibit symptoms. The rest of us are moderately and briefly discommoded, even without treatment.

     Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube would prefer that you not know that, of course. They’ve labored like galley slaves to suppress any mention of the actual data, let alone analysis of what it means in epidemiological terms. I suppose that’s “for your own good,” too. After all, if you were exposed to that stuff, you might get ideas.

     Enough. Go back to your jobs. (Employers: reopen your offices and workplaces. Churches: resume the sacraments.) Resume your social lives. Renew your communities. Make play dates for your minor children. Return to your normal lives.

     Let’s be the America the residents of Hong Kong believe us to be.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

1) Pay taxes to government
2) Vote for people who desire to occupy government positions
3) Conduct normal life
4) Do things the occupiers of government positions do not like
5) Have normal life restricted or banned by occupiers of government positions using the tax money you paid
6) Spend own money to beg courts to ask occupiers of government positions to change.
7) Escalate court begging to higher court when occupiers of government positions appeal court decision
8) through 10) More higher courts, more months, more years, more of own money
11) Maybe eventually get normal life back

Maybe we should just "cut to the chase" and go directly to Step 12. See: Wolfe, Claire; Signers of Declaration of Independence; authors of U.S. Constitution; Voltaire, "pour encourager les autres."

Linda Fox said...

It's going to be costly for the first to stick their necks out - we need to be willing to jump in - with donations - to help them fight the pushback.

This week, I'm going to go around town with a camera, capturing sights and talking to people about the way they are getting back to social interaction. My church in SC is planning to open again on May 11 (I assume that they want to avoid the first days back being with crowds, which Mother's Day might bring).

Every day for the next month, I'm going to make a point of getting out and patronizing those businesses that are open - and NOT box stores/big corporations. While I do appreciate the way that Home Depot and Lowe's managed to keep going for essential supplies, I think we need to drill down and support the smaller retailers and restaurants. So, although I truly lust for Bojangles, I'm going to find out when a local restaurant - Susie's - opens, and make a point of getting a few meals there. AND putting pictures and promotions on Yelp and Next Door for those businesses.

JWM said...

No doubt you've heard about the tyranny here in So Cal. Newsome saw people (OMG!!!) Going to the beach, and that was enough to activate his inner Stalin. All Orange county beaches are now closed.
Yesterday I got together with a few of the guys in my bicycle gang for a 22 mile cruise on the Santa Ana River trail. The bike path was open thanks to our kindly and benevolent dick-tater. One of the guys invited a young couple to come cruise with us. They both dutifully wore their masks in the car, and did not remove them when they got out. We're old farts, and we refuse the mask. It is ridiculous to be out in the open with no one within hundreds of feet of you and be masked up like a plague doctor. The kids left and went home after just a couple miles. Didn't want to take the risk.
I hate being such a pessimist, but I fear our America has been dead for a long time, and this virus BS has just ripped the mask off it all. People willingly and unquestioningly obey the government, and recite the Television catechism like good little commies. They chant slogans like the sheep in Animal Farm. They delight in snitching out disobedient neighbors. They lecture, wag fingers, and run to the Next Door app to tattle on someone they saw somewhere who wasn't social distancing. I am both gut sick, and enraged. I pray for forbearance. I pray to not let the anger sicken me. I pray to know what to do. Haven't received any answers from above. Doesn't stop the prayer, though. Right now it's the best and only thing I have.

JWM

NITZAKHON said...

America, as I knew it, died - at least in my view - when despite open and on video collusion with a hostile power by Barackus he was still re-elected in 2012.

"Spicy time" is coming. What form it will take, I don't know.

Don K said...

I have long believed that the shutdown for the Chinese lung rot would become a trial run for the Democrats to determine how much abuse the American public will take.

Apparently, a hell of a lot.

Note:

The shutdown and fine of the mom and pop pawnshop and Grants New Mexico. They cater to the Indians and to the tourists. The Indians pawn family treasures in order to purchase necessities of life. They later, if able, redeem their treasures. This is clearly a hand to mouth existence for all concerned. The Indians with their pawned treasures, and the pawn proprietor who caters to their needs. The owner reopened his store, and was immediately hit with a $60,000 fine. You have to know, that this is a mortal blow. The citizens have not objected.

The shutdown of the restaurateur in Maine. He opened up. The state immediately revoked his licenses. Did the citizens object? Crickets.

The demonstration in California to reopen the beaches.
The citizens demonstrated in the streets. But if you look at the picture you see that the beaches are still empty. The citizens were being polite. That got them nowhere. I believe the citizens should have pushed their way onto the beach past the police. If the police resisted, they should have been pulled off their horses and depantsed. Their horses should have been shooed out onto the beach for them to catch a later time. There were nearly 3000 protesters the demonstration. If the police showed up in force, the citizens should have insisted on being arrested en masse if they could not resist the armed force of the police thugs.

Going through the courts is a fool's errand. The government is already using force on its citizens. We should respond in kind.


Mike Guenther said...

Where in SC if you don't mind my asking. We live in The Golden Corner between Seneca and Walhalla.

We've been using the local restaurant/steakhouse a lot. They had just opened a new location when the Chinese Lung Aids caused the shutdown. Thankfully they are able to stay open for take out and drive through.

Oldfart said...

"Going through the courts is a fool's errand. The government is already using force on its citizens. We should respond in kind."

You're right, of course, but it'll still be a long time before we see it - we're too polite to do anything like that. Fortunately for this country, the signers of the Declaration of Independence were far-seeing enough to recognize that what they were doing would actually reduce the violence and bloodshed along the path they were embarking upon.

We or our progeny will have to discover that same truth and take similar action. TPTB have kicked the can far enough down the road that a significant portion of the populace has lost sight of the freedom we once knew. Too many of our kids have no personal experience with it, thus they lack the ability to compare the 'bread and circuses served with a side of fear' that we get these days, with the freedom we knew and remember.

It'll be a long and bumpy road. I won't be there when the journey is ended, but my grandkids might be. I've tried to instill a little of my love for our way of life in them. Time will tell.

God bless America!