A Nation of gutless blowhards

In my previous commentary, I asked "When does enough finally become ENOUGH?" and spur Americans to finally take action. I closed with:

All of this begs the question... how can we effectively regain control over our own government? Are there actions that enough people can realistically take that can have a real and relatively quick result? I think there are, if enough of us can, with real conviction, stand up and say "Enough is ENOUGH!"... and mean it. My next commentary will be somewhat radical.

As I wrote the phrase "somewhat radical", I had not decided what I meant in specific terms. I have no desire to go to prison, nor do I wish for others who might follow my advice to go there. That, despite the fact that all of us SHOULD BE IN PRISON, as a matter of principle, as perfectly expressed by Henry David Thoreau in "Civil Disobedience" in 1849 :

Under a government, which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. IT makes it worse.Wise, thought-provoking and challenging words... indeed a condemnation of what we have already allowed to happen. We ARE afraid of our own government. We ARE afraid to challenge it directly and personally, even though that government was established specifically to protect our individual rights, with provision for us to "alter or abolish" said government if necessary.

Our ancestors fought to give us freedom and the means to keep it. Generation after generation since then, we have feebly allowed it to change us into fearful, willing slaves. Even the serfs of the Middle Ages didn't pay nearly as much for "benevolent governance" as we do. We allow, even encourage, our young people to fight and die in the name of "freedom" for others while we cringe in fear of our OWN government, most of us unwilling even to raise a VOICE in defense of ourselves.

WE ARE WHIPPED. All of us... from the rabid, macho phoners of talk radio, to the tough-talking sports fans, to those guzzling beer while cheering on "survivors" or "ultimate fighters", or even the bad-ass militia folks... we are ALL afraid to take on our own government. We willingly play the annual "send half of what you make" tax game. We turn our heads (or even help justify the offense) when our government extends its oppression over us. We've bought into the polarized two-party trap, accepting that slavery is OK if "our" slaver does it, rather than that evil "other" slaver.

I don't give a damn how comfortable your life is... or how unthreatened you may feel... if you are afraid to confront your own government, you ARE without question a SLAVE too. You are completely at your government's mercy, subject to its unpredictable whim.

How can we be willing to enlist or support armed conflict abroad, in the name of abstract freedom for people we don't know, but still be unwilling to lift a hand in support of our OWN freedom right here? The real threat to our freedoms is not Muslim terrorists, it's our own government, and we're accepting it like a nation of SHEEP.

A well-known American gave us these inspiring lines:

Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen, and defended by citizens
When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

Thoreau? Martin Luther King? Jefferson? Washington?
Hell no... those lines are from our current elected President, in his 2nd inaugural address, speaking to the rest of the world, but clearly NOT to his "fellow Americans". The bald-faced, unabashed hypocrisy. Our government will help others fight for their liberty from their government, now that we've turned our own citizens into willing slaves? Hitler was never bolder and more full of it than that, and it's not new with the current administration... we've been accepting it for a long time.

When we "stand for liberty" or "choose to defend our freedom as citizens", who are we standing AGAINST, who are we defending it FROM? Foreign terrorists? Foreign governments? Hell no... we haven't lost any freedom to foreigners, unless you count the loss of freedom imposed by OUR GOVERNMENT and blamed on foreign threats... a fear-mongering excuse to further pacify American citizens.

Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarshall and Luftwaffe-Chief understood this governmental tactic all too clearly:

...the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country."

If you think I'm exaggerating the extent to which we are whipped by our government, just go attend your local city council meeting. Watch the few meek citizens sit quietly and patiently for a chance to speak at the throne of our local officials, who will schedule any citizen input at the end of the meeting, after the ritualistic awards to retiring employees, or fake discussion of questions that will be referred back to staff or postponed until after more study. Council "chambers" are even designed to make it unmistakable that you, as a citizen, are a barely-tolerated supplicant at the feet of your leaders.

Every year that goes by, the task facing the American people... the task of regaining control over our own government... becomes more difficult. Government grows continually, in size, cost, power, and oppressiveness. The thought of revolting against, or even slowing down our government is a daunting one. There are oppressed people all over the world, dominated by their governments, but none of them faces a government with the power of ours.

Make no mistake... I am not much less guilty than the worst of you. I've sat in meetings, furious at the way citizens are talked down to and stalled with political mumbo-jumbo, and I didn't speak out.

Talk (and writing) is not enough. In my next article, I want to explore how we can at least BEGIN to exert some influence over our government... at least get them to pay attention to us.