Uncle Sam, Switched at Birth? Have Americans Traded "Choice" for Liberty?

in #life7 years ago

About ten years ago, I was standing at the checkout at the local Walmart Hometown Market and I looked up. They had recently expanded their impulse buy offerings and the gum and mint selection was staggering. I started to count. Right there, three feet from the register, they had over sixty varieties of gum and mints.

I remember thinking, why? Why do we feel we need this many options? Do we? Over the years, I can’t count the number of people I’ve found, in that exact same store, paralyzed, as they stand, staring at a shelf of goods, trying to choose between the thirty or forty varieties of product in a given category. American’s obsession with choice has reached an almost pornographic level.

Of course it stands as a symbol of American privilege, and how out of touch we are with the rest of the world, but as a citizen, I find it much deeper and more troubling than that. I fear we have traded our birthright of self-determination, the true liberty outlined in our declaration, for choice.

When you read the words of the Declaration of Independence, and understand what it actually represented in history, it’s hard not to be moved. The idea that a people could be their own sovereign rulers was beyond rebellious, it was almost a crime against nature. It had never been done successfully.

But, it had, actually. What the Declaration of Independence declared on that July Fourth, 241 years ago, was a statement born out of self-rule to a very large degree. Here, in the colonies, the Americans had discovered, not that they wanted to be free men, but that they were, indeed born free, and in that understanding, they stood to declare that no one owned them.

I fear this is no longer true. Not only do most Americans not own themselves to any large degree, they no longer have the desire to operate self-determinate lives. We have been domesticated, switched at birth, as it were, for weak, defenseless, wards of the almighty state.

Where once walked sovereign citizens, who understood their place at the top of the political food chain, and gladly shouldered the responsibility born in that, now stand a people who make such declarations as “every person has the right to demand healthcare from their government”. We fail to remember that we are supposed to be that government.

While we debated privately, and in the public square about the wall of separation between church and state, a more important wall has been created, separating the state, from the people. It is nearly complete. Built on the mythology of America, one of the bloodiest nations in history, as the shining city on a hill, example to all, this wall doesn’t even struggle to contain us, because we built it.

Brick by brick, through years of conditioning, we have come to expect things from the government, and accept their ability to reach into our pockets at a moment’s notice, to pray the price for whatever it is. All, mind you, with no accountability for the horrendous mismanagement, and downright fraud that has become the status quo.

Where we were once proud to do things differently, in order to maintain our freedom, we now look to nations that never made that claim as our example. What happened? It seems to me that over time, as government has encroached in our lives to the point that the challenge to name a single aspect of your life that is not ruled by some form of government, cannot be met. Try it in the comments, I’ll prove you wrong, that we were not forcibly enslaved. Instead, the power brokers, subtle and crafty as they are, handed us material, as slowly, link by link, we forged our own chains, and willingly, locked ourselves in them.

And while these chains lie heavy with injustice, imminent domain run amuck, police that have no accountability even when committing heinous murders, in full view, civil asset forfeiture, crony capitalism driving prices through the roof, we don’t even notice them. In fact, like crabs, boiling in a pot, if one steps out of line and cries out, “we’re in chains” we beat them back in line with those same chains.

“Don’t you care about your fellow man?” we cry. And then we paint pictures of a savior state that will make it all better, and of course we owe our allegiance to the mighty savior. We never even pause to consider if there is another way. We keep speaking and believing as if we were free men and women, while the collars are forged and fitted, chaining us to the engine of their economic gain.

To me, nowhere has this been clearer in recent days than in the crypto market, where Uncle Sam has declared himself. Not ready to admit that we’ve been able to create money from trust, but knowing they cannot ignore $40 billion in potential taxes, they’ve declared it property! On what basis?

The formula for the blockchain was not born on American soil. It requires nothing of the American government to build, distribute, or maintain. In essence, they are like the friends of the fabled Little Red Hen, who planted corn, and no one helped, who harvested the corn, and no one helped, who ground the corn into flour, and no one helped, who rolled the flour into dough, and no one helped, but now, as the bread is coming from the oven, they declare the first slice to be theirs!

In recent years, a percentage of the population that has always existed, has been given a gift, the digital domain. In it, we were free to express our views on liberty, to educate one another and share the abuses and failures of the system, sometimes even winning small victories over the powers that be to regain some shred of liberty. But that’s changing.

Now, with a stroke of the pen, our leaders have declared our browser histories up for grabs to the highest bidder. And, while, marketing companies may have lobbied to make this happen, don’t be fooled, Uncle Sam could care less about the financial rewards, although they will take their share. They salivate, as they see that they now have access to years of our data, without the need of a court order, a search warrant, or any other pesky 4th amendment ploy. While we believed we exercised a reasonable expectation to privacy, they have declared our own homes, our desktops, the public square.

So, as I go to celebrate liberty today. It is not to honor the state as she stands, although I know she is better than many. I honor, instead, that original intent that said,

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created (born) equal, that they are endowed by their Creator (or, in their human nature) with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

And, to be clear, I withdraw my consent to be governed from this current system and intend, with every breath in my body, to fight it’s injustices in my own life and the lives of my family, neighbors, and countrymen, until such time as true liberty is restored, if such a thing ever existed. Happy Independence Day, please, declare your own independence, without it, no national independence can ever really matter.

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It's a huge state owned tax farm.
People are happily giving up Liberty for the illusion of government protection.
Not just in the US but all over the western world. The founding fathers didn't want hand outs, foreign wars or to be controlled by an 'overlord' like the British Empire. But slowly the powers that be have dragged you back in. Whether they be banks, corporations or royals they've got the folks where they want them. You guys were a beacon of freedom, the world needs that again or were all in the shit.
@tremendospercy

Giving us less choices works better. Like in 5 star restaurants, the menus fit on one side of paper, it helps eliminate indecision and makes the buying process simpler for the restaurant. We'd like to think we want a lot of choices but we're really just going to buy the grouper w/roasted rosemary potatoes again.

Or in our electoral process. They like to eliminate all possible rogue candidates through a primary process. Which is really about making sure the elite's guy and a Nato friendly, globalist friendly, Israel friendly person gets in. And with the choices, we really don't want to have to decide between 8 people. We want clear cut choices. Good guy/gal vs bad guy/gal. Easier decision. (This is why I believe all of these comic book flicks are popular now, dumbed down good/bad binary simpleton stories for "adults").

It's a catch-22. Most people honestly do not posses the critical thinking skills to handle choice let alone actual open-ended freedom @markmorrisjr.

Those kinds of critical thinking skills, like the hunting skills of a domestic dog, can only be developed in the "wild" I think we'd do just fine.

Great read, but it's the last line that says so much because...

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

How many of us would make this pledge? The Founders recognized that they were being hunted down when they wrote this and if captured were to be hung!

I don't find that the most compelling line. I think the opening is where the power of this statement even comes from. They made this statement as a personal choice, out of the knowledge and belief that they were truly, radically, free, rather than it being something thrust upon them, as modern Americans find it.

It's easy to say what you are for, it's another to make a pledge to another person that you will back up your word, even in death.

I agree that this gave the former statement it's power. I wonder how many today would really give their lives to be truly free? I think we fear that responsibility.

Great point with everyone wanting everything from the government, as if the government has any money!

They have 300 million wallets, unfortunately, they are all in our pockets.

This is by far the best, well written article I have read thus far on Steemit...or anywhere for that matter. I, for one am with you!

Aren't choice and liberty somewhat synonymous?

I'll let you out of your cell for thirty minutes, you have a choice, yard, or commissary?

I take it you're smelling what I'm laying down? HA

Hmm... what's the geographic distribution of our Witnesses like?

Nice article :)

Thanks for sharing!

Funny, the word liberty is a nautical term for getting permission from the captain to go ashore.

Yes, but words are defined by usage, not the other way around. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=liberty

True but in NLP there is a concept called deep process. Sometimes what we say reveals what is going on unconsciously. And how we are deceived or are deceiving others. Often words have a second meaning that those in power use.

Well, we can only speak to our own definitions, and for me, liberty means, having a captain, or not having a captain, at my volition.

Thank you for your post. I totally agree with you...
I just wrote a small post about another type of "Independence"...

Cool, thanks for the comment. I'll take a look.

I resteemed your post!
It was worthy!

Freedom to choose vs non-inclusive
an in Dem / Rep / Indp

All very important issues and ones that should be on our minds consistently these days.

yes i wish people would read and think

I don't believe that at all. It's simply that they've been conditioned to seek answers in a very narrow vein. That's not an indication of lack of intelligence, they merely don't know what they're capable of.

Their indoctrination runs deep, so deep that they are blinded to real true evidence. Refusing to accept the facts as they choose to continue in their fantasy...