Reconsidering Our Freedom And Bravery

This is America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, right? I’m not so sure any more on both counts. Lets start with freedom: We think we are free in this country, and admittedly we probably enjoy more freedoms than citizens of many other countries, but, are we truly free in an essential and fundamental sense? What I mean is, are we free to be a completely autonomous beings and determine our destiny with no outside interference. My answer is no, we are not. Let me explain how I’ve arrived at that conclusion by enumerating some basic freedoms every one of us has been denied and we probably haven’t even thought about. Freedoms so fundamental, yet their denial to us so unnoticed.
We do not have the freedom of anonymity. Now, to live in complete anonymity is neither desirable nor possible. The ideal is that we are all part of a general larger group called a community and a specific smaller group called a family. However, as physical and mental maturation increase, we begin to develop our own individuality until we become the unique individuals that we are. We then should be free to determine our destiny without outside coercive interference from the above groups. We seek and receive guidance from without and we are accountable to maintain a peaceful and harmonious coexistence with the groups in which we are a part, but our individuality and personal destinies should be a matter of self determination. But, this ideal cannot be attained in its purest form because we are always subject to the coercive forces of government. You may ask what anonymity has to do with the government’s coercive power over us. Simply stated, a prerequisite to coercive victimization is the state of being known and being accessible to the victimizer. The lack of anonymity ensures both of these states.
Shortly after birth, the government assigns us a unique social security number through which we can be identified and studied. The government, as well as other entities, can track our earnings and credit information by using our social security number. It can also be a helpful aid in tracking and locating individuals.
Once an infant has been assigned a social security number, his anonymity is forever lost and with it, the possibility of the purest form of self determination. The only way that anonymity can ever be regained is by staging ones death and thus becoming free from the assigned social security number. But this would be a criminal act and would cause the individual to live in fear of discovery and that would also be detrimental to the pursuit of the purest state of individual autonomy and self determination. Indeed, one cannot evolve into an autonomous individual while on the lam. In my essay Misdirected Rage, I explained how the government creates criminals out of decent citizens. This is yet another example. It is illegal in this country to be anonymous! We were not given a choice whether or not we wanted a social security number or not. Indeed it was assigned to us before we were even completely cognizant of our existence. Also, we cannot attain employment without one, at least not legally. Frankly, we can’t carry on much of anything in this country without a social security number. Lending institutions require it for loans. Banks require it to open an account. Even a drivers license cannot be attained without it.
Why does the government need to keep track of its citizenry and in the process render anonymity illegal? Two reasons come to mind immediately: power and money! That’s right my friends, it finally comes down to power and money. How can a person who is not known be controlled and extorted from? Answer: they can’t! The government cannot impose its multitude of laws on someone it doesn’t know exists. It also cannot tax someone it doesn’t know exists.
This brings me to another freedom we don’t have in this country. Again, a freedom so fundamental as to be so obvious to everyone, but its denial basically unnoticed. We do not have the freedom not to spend our money. One could argue that the money itself technically is not ours but property of the US treasury, and that argument has some validity if we had the choice to barter as was done years ago. But, doesn’t it say on our paper money that it is legal tender for all public and private debts?
Yes, my friends, it does. And that rules out private barter and also forces us to use federal reserve notes, which is the government endorsed and required form of money. As long all payments and earnings are in federal reserve notes, the government considers itself justified in taking it from us. You see, it would be very difficult for the government to tax and control barter trade. I realize that a barter system is not feasible or even desirable in this modern age and my illustration is not intended to endorse the barter system, but to demonstrate how the government has created a stacked deck against its citizens with the current monetary system.
But, alas, we do in fact have a justification for saying that the money we earn is ours and not the governments. We earned the money by providing a service. The money was not given to us, but rather we gave ourselves for the money. We gave of our talents. We gave of our time. And finally we gave by free choice. We chose to work and use our talents for the betterment of our community and to provide for our needs and our families. But our vocation is not only a means of attaining payment to provide for our needs. It is also an expression of our individuality and uniqueness and thus our contribution to the ongoing and ever progressing fabric of reality.
Having established a justification for our individual ownership the wages of our labor, I return to the second fundamental freedom we do not have in this country. We are not free to choose not to spend money. Now, as with complete anonymity being undesirable, so it would be undesirable and impossible not to spend money at all. But how often are we forced to spend money against our will and sometimes even beyond our ability to afford? And what is the cause of this unwanted and cumbersome spending. I think you all know the answer. That’s right, it our coercive, bullying government extorting our sustenance and calling it taxation in order to cloak it in a disguise of legitimacy. How many times have we been forced to spend our hard earned money on something of which we did not choose to spend it? We have federal, state, and local taxes. We have social security taxes. We have annual vehicle registration and inspection for each vehicle we own. Every four years we have to pay to renew our driver’s license. By law we must carry liability insurance on our vehicles. There are property taxes and per capita taxes just to name some of the more obvious ones. There is even an occupational privilege tax! Can you imagine that folks? I didn’t realize that working and earning a living and in the process keeping off the public dole was a privilege. It’s amazing how creative the government can be when it comes up with new and innovative ways to plunder its citizens.
And many of the taxes above come directly out of our paychecks before we even get them. How presumptuous our government is to think that they get the first slice of the pie. How arrogant that they think they should get their "share" before our families. Listen Mr. and Ms. Politician and listen good. My family and their needs come before your supposed needs! They are my priority and the source of enrichment and joy in my life. You, rather, are the source of frustration and angst and I hold you in contempt!
We have briefly touched on the issue of freedom and I have discussed two fundamental freedoms that we do not have and cannot regain in a legal manner. I have mentioned in some of the letters I have written to legislators and also in phone conversations that I believe that our government operates on what I like to call law of savages. Simply stated, might makes right. Now I have expressed that opinion to my state senator in a phone conversation regarding the recent legislative pay increase and he whole heartedly disagreed with my assessment and was quick to remind me that what we have is a "representative" form of government. My response quite simply was that neither myself nor the majority or Pennsylvanians approved of the raise. How is that representative government? You see, until I’m convinced otherwise, I will continue to believe that might makes right is the operating principle in our present government. The government has the power and so they are right, end of story. How else can you explain the confiscatory tax structure and the oppressive laws that are legion? Folks, I stated in Misdirected Rage that even the Almighty, whoever you believe that to be, only felt it necessary to give us ten laws or commandments. Now it is not my intention to bring religion into this issue, but even common sense dictates that in order to live peaceably with one another, we only need a few simple guidelines. We should treat others as we want to be treated. You know, don’t murder, steal, or harm others. Laws of that nature are legitimate and universal. Laws to protect us from ourselves or from life itself are bogus and illegitimate no matter what legislative body or judge says otherwise! Laws that are intended to enrich politicians or the government or allow them further license to intrude into our lives are bogus and illegitimate no matter what legislative body or judge says otherwise! Am I supposed to be impressed with a law because it has some governors or president’s signature on it? I’m not impressed. Most laws are just ideas that an insulated elite have decided are better than other ideas and then enforced that idea on all of us. "Representative Government" or "Might Makes Right" I believe it is clearly the latter that is the driving philosophy in our present government because if it was the former, there would not be so many disenchanted, disenfranchised and just plain disappointed people as there are now.
Okay, now lets talk about bravery: I think us as American citizens have become so complacent that we don’t even know any more how to regain our freedom and stop the oppression of government. This is partly do to our lack of vigilance, but it’s not completely our fault. It is also because our representatives have betrayed our trust in such a systematic and insidious way that we have become like the proverbial frog placed in cool water and then slowly boiled to death without even a flinch. Our representatives have allowed the group mentality to take over and transform them from honest, well-intentioned individuals to just another cog in a giant, self perpetuating machine. What started out as a mission of statesmanship has become for most politicians a self-serving agenda and a frantic effort to maintain that position of power and influence. And the longer one stays in that atmosphere, the more difficult it becomes to identify and empathize with those in the private sector, especially the middle class.
The result is that our bravery has been compromised. We may be brave when it comes to the enemy without, but we have succumbed to the enemy from within, our own oppressive government. We have allowed ourselves to be contracted and have our potentiality severely reduced by illegitimate mandates that are law only in name but not in reality. We live in fear and have our lives complicated my bogus mandates that stifle individuality and autonomy. We allow our wealth to be plundered and have to sacrifice or delay financial independence while our representatives forget what the word sacrifice means.
I propose we become brave again and take back our freedom. Lets demand that laws be reduced and refuse to obey the "laws" that are intended to protect us from ourselves or nature. And "laws" intended to enrich those in power but do nothing to make our lives better. If it isn’t a universal law intended to keep anarchy at bay, disregard it with as the contemptuous trash it is. I think we should all stop working and then we won’t have to pay many of the taxes that come directly out of our paychecks. Can you imagine that?! We’d bring those crooks to their knees if we did that. Send a message to the government that you are sick and tired of being punished for being a productive citizen. Withhold your skills because they are not appreciated! Demand that your representatives prove to you that they do not operate on the "might makes right" principle.
And finally, vote your representative out and get some new people in there who won’t betray your trust and plunder your wealth and diminish your potentiality with oppressive and unnecessary laws.
If we regain our bravery, regaining our freedoms won’t be far behind. If we don’t do this, than lets at least stop being hypocrites and admit this is no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave.