Freedom Is Slavery
By Al Benson Jr.
Walter Williams is an economics professor at George Mason University. I have always found his articles, which appear often in our local paper, to be insightful and penetrating. He writes many of them in such a way that he seems to be using them as little teaching capsules–trying to pass along a little information on the economy or on political issues to a public-school-"educated" public that was taught almost nothing in school but doesn’t realize it. He recently did an article in which he commented on egregious violations of the U.S. Constitution by, you guessed it, the federal government. Given what we have had in office for decades it should come as no surprise that the federal government is the greatest violator of the Constitution. Maybe what we should wonder about is why it seems to easy to violate it and why the Feds do it at will. Toward the end of this article he quoted French economist and philosopher Frederic Bastiat, who, back in the first part of the 19th century, wrote an informative little book called "The Law."
In talking about immoral government laws, he noted that Bastiat said: "See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime." By that simple definition much of what passes for "law" in this country amounts to little more than legalized plunder–taking from one group and bestowing the fruits of their labor onto another group that has not, and probably never will, work for them. But the recipient group votes right and will support the current regime extensively because they feel they will (and are entitled to) a share of the loot. And get a share they will, but never as big as they’d like.
The regime’s fat cat friends and CEO’s in big business (corporate fascists) will end up with most of what the regime manages to steal from the middle class, while the welfare deadbeats that vote the right way will get some of the crumbs from their masters’ table-just enough to bemuse them and keep them on the federal dole. And the middle class, which our current Marxist regime is in the process of trying to stamp out, is the major victim of this massive wealth redistribution scam. They help to make the super-rich richer and keep the welfare recipients on the federal dole and they don’t even get the courtesy of a thank you for it. All they get for their contributions are grumbles from a socialist Congress that tells them the middle class needs to learn to pay more and make do with less (of course the congressional leadership will not have to make due with less). After all, they are the "elite" placed in power to show us rubes how to make it on less so they can have more.
And from the other side, the middle class gets moans and whining from the deadbeats who don’t ever plan to work, but still want a bigger slice of the pie. After all, isn’t it their "right" to be taken care of in a manner consistent with their socialist pretensions? The wonder of all this is that the middle class continues to put up with it all. One could hope and pray that the day might come when the middle class wakes up and says "enough." If you understand why they haven’t, then you will know why we have public "education" in this country. Though there are some rumblings, I am not holding my breath.
Government education has done its job well and the brainwashed never wonder. Professor Williams, at the tail end of his article, quotes philosopher Wolfgang von Goethe when he said "no one is as hopelessly enslaved as the person who thinks he is free." And Williams noted that this is "…an apt description for Americans who are oblivious to–or ignorant of–the liberties we’ve lost." I doubt that anyone could have said it any better. After the 9/11 debacle George Bush informed shocked Americans that the Muslim terrorists "hated us for our freedoms." That was bovine fertilizer and he knew it. He then proceeded to push the Patriot Act down our throats to make sure those "freedoms" we supposedly had were removed.
Maybe he thought the Muslims would hate us less if we were less free. Thanks to their public school (mis)educations, most Americans continue to believe the hogwash about our freedom here being the envy of the world, and when Christians go to church they are mostly fed with a diet of "the Lord’s in control so don’t worry about any of this." The Lord is in control. There’s no argument there but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t want His people to be concerned about the liberties He has been gracious enough to bestow on them. The reminder by von Goethe is a haunting one, though. In this country "freedom" has become slavery and we don’t know the difference.
©2011 Al Benson Jr.
On The Web: http://www.cakewalkblogs.com/antiestablishmenthistory/freedom-slavery.aspx