Posted on 12/09/2011 4:22:58 AM PST by Kaslin
What if our rights didn't come from God or from our humanity, but from the government? What if the government really thinks we're not unique individuals with immortal souls, but just public property? What if we were only entitled to our natural rights if it pleased the government? What if our rights could be stripped away whenever the government considers us to be its enemy?
What if this could all be accomplished with the consent of the people? What if the people's own representatives subverted the Constitution? What if the people were so afraid that they accepted the subversion? What if the government demonizes an external enemy and uses fear of that enemy to suppress our freedoms? What if people are afraid to protest?
What if the government knows this, and thus chooses enemies that are easily demonized, whether they pose real threats or not? What if threats become imminent dangers precisely because the government allowed them to happen? What if government scapegoating of an external enemy is as old as the government itself? What if the government has used scapegoating again and again to scare people into giving up their freedoms voluntarily? What if the government has relied on this to perform the same magical disappearing-freedom act time and again throughout history?
What if the government could lock you up and throw you in jail indefinitely? What if that jail was in Cuba? What if the government has written laws to let it keep you detained forever without letting you see a lawyer or a judge? What if you were just speaking out against the government and it came to silence you? What if the government could declare you its enemy and then kill you? What if your elected representatives did nothing to stop the government from doing this? What if the government claimed that your words made you a warrior, even though there never were any armed hostilities in your neighborhood and you never threatened anyone? What if the government could classify the entire country as a battlefield and, ultimately, a prison? What if the government's goal was to be rid of all who disagreed with it?
What if the real war was a war of misinformation? What if the government constructs its own reality in order to suit its own agenda? What if civil liberties don't mean anything to the government? What if the government just chooses to allow you to exercise them freely because you don't threaten it at the moment? What if the government released a report calling you a domestic terror threat, just because you disagreed with the government? What if the government coaxed crazy people into acting like terrorists, just to keep you afraid? What if the government persuaded you to believe that the greatest threat to your freedom is an impoverished and uneducated Third World population 10,000 miles away? What if the real threat to your freedom is a rich, powerful and all-seeing government? What if that government thinks it can write any law, regulate any behavior and tax any event no matter what the Constitution says?
What if the government is always the greatest threat to freedom because only the government can constitute a monopoly on the use of force? What if, in fact, at its essence, government is simply a monopoly of force? What if, in fact, at its essence, government is simply the negation of freedom? What if the government monopoly incubated, aided and abetted enemies' freedoms? What if, when the danger got more threatening, the government told you to sacrifice more of your liberties for safety? What if you fell for that?
What if those who traded liberty for safety ended up in internment camps? What if the greatest threat to freedom was not any outfit of thugs in some cave in a far-off land, but an organized force here at home? What if that organized force broke its own laws? What if that organized force did the very same things to those it hates and fears that it prosecutes people for doing to it? What if I'm right and the government's wrong? What if it's dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if government is essentially wrong and always dangerous?
What if these weren't just hypothetical or rhetorical questions? What if this is actually happening to us? What if the ultimate target in the government's war on terror is all who believe in personal freedom? What if that includes YOU? What do we do about it?
It was. We’ve lost it.
The government is like an irresponsible parent that allows thier kids to have sex with anything that moves, lie, steal, cheat, rob, smoke and drink and tell them over and over it ‘s ok you can do these things because I have your back. Individual responsibility is missing from the equation and they are happy about that
No .
I think that the government, i mean the BIG ONE ie socialist government , pretends that HE knows what’s good for everybody and then that HE is a kind of god(and that we don’t need another TRUE GOD above itself).
Actually , of course, “HE” is a caricature and an irresponsible but tyrannical “parent”
LLS
We could very well see a revolution down the road.
What IF we just say NO?
1984 redux
Excellent post
Judges must get tired of Napolitano calling himself "The Judge" when he only served one such job for 7 years. "Granted life tenure, quit shortly thereafter" would be the comments on his resume in the private sector.
I just sent this as an email to most on my list.
What if EVERYONE did the same?
He term limited himself. Admirable IMHO. He is doing a serious job of educating the public that the public school system fails to do.
You may disagree with the message - he is a libertarian - but the conversation is important.
Who cares what judges think. Most judges are so far from justice and constitinaolism that they are worthless.
“What If Freedom Were Temporary”
It always is.
One of the founding fathers said it requires eternal vigilance.
Now, it seems that the eternal vigilance is dedicated to seeing that “the rich pay their fair share”, the oil companies become nationalized, and all those greedy capitalists stop being greedy.
Amazing how people, every few generations, need to see what a concentration camp looks and feels like.
IMHO
I believe the “he” you speak of should not be capitalized. The He I capitalize lets him “rule this world” perhaps but he doesn’t deserve respect and certainly not fealty. When we die for failing to “bend the knee” then we die.
Does he write the same article every week?
The question isn’t, “what if?” The question is, “why?”
And the answer is, the Communist MSM isn’t held accountable for their actions.
Even in the Bible, as strong as Israel was at times in its history, it was never more than one generation away from slavery - and neither are we. If we fail with our children, and many of our neighbors have failed catastrophically, they will become slaves in their lifetimes. The price of maintaining freedom is very high, too high for many of the next generation to be willing to risk paying that price, but the price of surrendering freedom is even higher.
I hope that we can avoid a second Civil War, and that we can avoid another all out war between the West and Islam, but there are worse things than war. I hope and pray that we will not have to face either or both of those in the next few generations. I also pray that when the time comes we will accept those wars and fight to win rather than surrendering.
Freedom can only truely exist on a frontier,
Any form of government restricts it to some extent.
I merely disagree with the name used by the messenger.
He term limited himself. Admirable IMHO. He is doing a serious job of educating the public that the public school system fails to do.
Yeah. So follow that to the natural conclusion. If it's admirable, then men and women of conviction and character should all do it....leaving only the craven and corrupt in positions of power! Brilliant!
So we'll have all the Palins and Napolitanos "admirably educating" us while the Obama's and Harry Reid's are governing us.
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