DO AMERICANS SEE THE DANGERS OF AN OVERREACHING GOVERNMENT?
by Ron Ewart, ©2011
(Jul. 17, 2011) —“The essence of liberty is the freedom of thought without limits and the freedom of action and movement with limits, such that one person’s actions and movements do not interfere with the freedom of thought and actions of another.” — Ron Ewart
Hitler could not have terrorized the world that resulted in the deaths of millions of people without the willing participation and adoration of the German people. A president in America cannot become president without the vote of the majority of the people. A hero will not be recognized as a hero without a large number of people acknowledging his acts of heroism. It is the people who grant power and status to others, or those that lead them.
The other night we watched the 1962 black and white movie “Hitler,” with Richard Basehart playing the part. We were struck by the millions of Germans who hung on his every word and adored his persona even though his persona was deeply flawed. It got us to thinking about the qualities of a leader that would cause the people to throw away their good sense to follow one man, anywhere, even into oblivion. Lemmings come to mind, even though the story about lemmings being herded over a cliff is apparently a myth.
The German people, en masse, looked the other way when Hitler assumed the power of a dictator in 1933. In fact they cheered him. They shrugged when he instituted his Brown Shirts. They said nothing when their children were trotted off to propaganda schools in the form of Hitler’s youth. They cheered again and participated when Hitler chose the Jews to persecute and execute ….. by the millions. Many Germans participated with the Nazi Storm Troopers during “the Night of Broken Glass” in November of 1938. The Germans called that night “Kristallnacht.”
And the Germans looked the other way when Hitler started violating the Versailles Treaty and building up his army and navy. They looked the other way when he annexed Austria and invaded Czechoslovakia, Poland, France and Russia and tried to obliterate London with buzz bombs and rockets in his diabolical quest to conquer the world. They looked the other way, that is, until Hell descended upon them in the humiliating defeat of the 2nd World War, at the hands of the determined allies.
The early warning signs of this megalomaniac were there for all to see and yet the people couldn’t get enough of this man who promised a prosperous and powerful Germany, riding a wave of irrational nationalism, in an unholy act of restoration from the devastating defeat of the first world war. The people didn’t care about freedom, liberty, self-reliance, or the rule of law. They wanted only to be saved from their perception of poverty and loss of pride and Hitler promised to do all those things. And so they abdicated their individuality for a “free” lunch and the restoration of national pride. They would follow this man into Hell to attain these fleeting fantasies and follow him into Hell they did.
We began to ask why large numbers of people were so quick to abdicate their individuality for promises from government, when it is so commonly known that government gives nothing away for free? There are always invisible chains tied to the wrists, neck and ankles of those who would sacrifice their freedom and abdicate their individuality to a government who owns nothing except the taxes it extracts from the people who produce something…. extracted by force of law, or at the point of a gun.
You did not create you. In the beginning you had no control over the mechanisms that formed the shape of your body, the characteristics of your personality or your mind, or the capabilities that were granted to your body and mind by virtue of life with or without your parents and your early environment. You are as unique as a snowflake, or as stars in the night sky. You will pass this way only once and then you are gone forever, just as the snow flake melts on the warming ground. What you think and how you act are what define you while you are here. They are the sum and the meaning of your life. If how you think and how you act belong to another, your life has no meaning.
This knowledge is more precious than all the riches possessed by man. If you are free on this earth to exercise free thought, free choice and free actions, you are indeed blessed. If you are none of these things, your life has no meaning other than the meaning given to you by those who hold the key to the lock on your chains.
Or even if you are free and you blindly follow someone, like the German people followed Hitler, or like so many that blindly follow Obama, you have abdicated your own free thought, free choice and the freedom to act, to the thoughts, free choice and actions of another, to whom you have granted superior powers. To acknowledge the acts of a hero is worthy. However, if you worship a hero, you have elevated that hero to a position of superiority over your own individuality. If you participate in a crowd, you become the collective thoughts and actions of that crowd, thereby abdicating your individuality to the crowd.
A plant rises up out of the moist, rich earth from a tiny seed no bigger than a few grains of sand. Its journey through life is preordained. It cannot sway from the goal set for it by its chemistry and biology. Somewhere along the way a bud forms on the end of a stalk or tendril of the plant and in but a few days, erupts into a splendor of color and a soft, enticing shape; each flower having its own unique form. It has no free thought, or free will, or freedom of action. It can only express itself to the environment through its inherent beauty, fully controlled by its biology. It then withers and dies. to be seen no more.
However, in direct contrast to the flower, man possesses consciousness, self-awareness, free will and free thought. He also possesses a herd instinct that will be his downfall should he allow it to override his free thought and free will. It is this herd instinct and the promise of something of value from a government who owns nothing except the blood, sweat and tears of its people, which leads man to his doom. It was the herd instinct that made the German people follow Hitler to their ultimate demise. It was the herd instinct that allowed a majority of the American people to vote for a man with a shadowy past, who promised hope and change but delivered only hopelessness, lies, deception, socialism, financial despair and potential national bankruptcy in their place.
If you abdicate your unique individuality to another, or a leader, you give all that is your reason for living and the meaning of your life to someone else, who will then describe for you what that reason and meaning is, without you having any say in the description. There is one exception however. To give one’s life for his country and the preservation, protection and defense of the principles of freedom, is the highest honor that can be bestowed on any man or woman.
To truly break the chains that bind you, from a person, a group, or a government, you must first recognize and acknowledge your special individuality, your free spirit, your free will and your free thought and have the courage to challenge those who would attempt to steal these precious things from you. If you do not challenge your enemy who would rob you of your reason for living and your unique individuality, then you are nothing but an animal in a crowd of animals that can be herded around with a horse and rider, a sheep dog, a helicopter, or by the application of unconstitutional law, or by the edicts of a dictator. You are in fact, a slave. A true American can never be a slave, in thought, free choice, or in action. We wonder though, how many true Americans are left? Or have we reached the point of no return where the majority of the American people have abdicated their individuality and granted superior powers to those that lead them? The next election should answer that question, at least in the short term.
This may be one of the most important articles we have ever written because the essence of freedom is embodied in the individual’s right of free thought, free will and free action “such that that individual’s actions and movements do not interfere with the freedom of thought and the actions of another.” Should these unalienable rights be extinguished by the actions of a tyrannical government, and make no mistake, they are being extinguished as we speak in America, to reclaim them may exceed the capability and courage of those who have lost those rights, should they have for far too long, abdicated their individuality to that government.
Without being able to express free thought, free will, free choice and the freedom of action and movement as your own unique individuality, then it can said that you have abdicated your individuality to others and are no longer free.
So, ladies and gentlemen, as you sum up your life and look in the mirror in search of who you are, ask yourself, be you truly free or be you slave? For he that searches for the meaning of life and his salvation and security in the arms of government has abdicated his individuality and is but a slave to his herd instinct…..as well as a slave to his master. The German people and millions of non-Germans paid a terrible price for the German people’s herd instinct. Hopefully, many in America will remember this price and what led to it, when it comes time to vote in November of 2012. Hopefully, they will vote to preserve their free thought, free will, free choice and the freedom of action and thus preserve their individuality.