The Greatest Enemy Of Liberty Is Apathy

[HARDCORE]

4-27-2018


We currently reside within a society, not only where much of our thinking is done for us, but indeed, where those who are doing that thinking demand fealty and obedience to their every command! “How we arrived at this pathetic juncture upon the road of life however, is quite obvious, in my opinion!”

“For many years now, we have allowed others to do our thinking for us!” We select, elect and hire individuals on the basis of their connections, their wealth, their verbosity and even their intimidation! We then allow these people to control our thinking and decision making - and at times, even our very lives!

The problem is that after a while, a few of these people no longer consider what they are handsomely paid to do to be a grave responsibility or an honor, but rather, they truly believe that it is their right to dictate, to badger, and to even intimidate, in a fashion that is more reminiscent of Dark- Ages Europe, than it is of a sophisticated, well-educated, and enlightened society of thinkers and self-controllers!

“We the People” are not fools nor are we feeble-minded or chattel! And most of all, many of us are still stubborn to a fault!

“We fought for this right, we bled for this right, and many of us even died for this right!”

And by heavens, we will not allow anything or anyone with a god-attitude or even a superiority complex, to barge into our homes or our lives (no matter where that may be) and to dictate to us on how we must think! “Our minds still belong to us alone!”

“In short, you had damned well better believe that Eric Blair (aka – George Orwell) has definitely left the building!”

And always remember this: “We Patriotic Americans” abandoned “The Old World’s” way of thinking centuries ago, and we have no room within our system for lords and masters, not even inside of our own elected government! And the quicker that they (and we ourselves) once again begin to realize (and to accept the fact) that we alone can (and must) control our own destiny, along with reining-in the actions of each and every petty little bureaucrat, then like it or not, we will continue to move closer and closer to that form of government that we left in our rear view mirrors, some 242 years ago!

This government is still “The People

[Boats]

James Madison wrote:

1. “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

2. “The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.”

3. “Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties or his possessions. ”

4. “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire...”

5. “Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.”

6. “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were
to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would
be necessary.”

7. “It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be to-morrow.”

8. “In framing a government, which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty is this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.”

9. “Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament, to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.”

10. “The man who is possessed of wealth, who lolls on his sofa, or rolls in his carriage, cannot judge of the wants or feelings of the day laborer. The government we mean to erect is intended to last for ages. ... unless wisely provided against, what will become of your government? In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of the landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes...”

11. “Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents.”

12. “I have observed that gentlemen suppose that the general legislature will do every thing mischievous they possibly can, and that they will omit to do every thing good which they are authorized to do. If this were a reasonable supposition, their objections would be good. I consider it reasonable to conclude that they will as readily do their duty as deviate from it; nor do I go on the grounds mentioned by gentlemen on the other side — that we are to place unlimited confidence in them, and expect nothing but the most exalted integrity and sublime virtue. But I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks, no form of government, can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men; so that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.”

James Madison (speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 20 June 1788)”