Sunday, June 5, 2011

Have we ever been truly free? Part 3

We must take a quick pause here to examine another unique aspect of the American Revolution and compare it with its contemporary, the French Revolution. I must quote Bastiat, who, having observed both revolutions wrote the following anecdote:


Mr. de Lamartine once wrote to me thusly: "Your doctrine is only the half of my program. You have stopped at liberty; I go on to fraternity." I answered him: "The second half of your program will destroy the first."
 In fact, it is impossible for me to separate the word fraternity from the word voluntary. I cannot possibly understand how fraternity can be legally enforced without liberty being legally destroyed, and thus justice being legally trampled underfoot.


This is a key concept. The American Revolution was fought for Individual freedom. The French Revolution was fought for the power of the Collective

Let’s stew on that for a second. We can discover from history that tribal societies are  collectivist societies. Property is collectively owned and the efforts of the tribe must go towards a single objective or the tribe will perish. This is by design. Collectivist societies demand all efforts and production, even life itself, be sacrificed for the common good of the collective.

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…or the one” – Spock

This arrangement benefits the Ruling Class most. They don’t have to produce, they just have to order. Their job is to organize societies like giant factories and reap the benefits of the production. They manage, control and decide. The individual does not exist in this model and it is replaced by the amorphous “people”. Listen to a statist politician speak and you will hear it clearly. He is for the “people”. His actions are for the common benefit of the “people”. Also examine that they always speak about common effort and “shared sacrifices” or the “collective salvation” of societies. 

The French Revolution ended in tyranny because it only sought to replace one ruling class with another!

And that, my friends, is the logical destination of all collectivist societies. Collectivist societies are, at their core, tribal societies and will always revert to tyranny. So we have a new dictum:

A cultural acceptance of collectivism is a requirement to Tyranny and will always end in Tyranny

Men must accept collectivism in order for the ruling class to rule. They must accept the false logic of the Parent/Child relationship with their masters. And they must do so voluntarily. They must believe!

But how can you convince a man who at his core understands his survival depends on individual freedoms and self determination to join the collective? How can you make a man believe in the collective good? How can you make him a believer to the point that he will willingly sacrifice his property, mind and life for the good of the many? How can you make a man self destruct? You change the culture.

In order to change the culture, you must first become relevant to the members of that culture. They must need you. Remember that the King’s power came from controlling the means of production. Once the colonists learned they no longer needed the Kings permission to survive, they revolted. So you must create dependence. You must re-establish the parent/child need for survival. This one is easy. Quoting Bastiat again:

”… This fatal desire has its origin in the very nature of man — in that primitive, universal, and insuppressible instinct that impels him to satisfy his desires with the least possible pain.”


So you must appeal to the base impulses of men and provide all their needs with the least possible pain. Once they are dependent on you, you can rule them as you wish. Happy days are here again!

But wait, if everyone is dependent, who will produce? After all, you cannot plunder the production of dependents. You can make everyone partially dependent, but by default you will lose production. So how can you convince the producers to produce for your plunder?

Altruism and Patriotism. You must convince man that his sacrifice is goodness and that his benefit is selfish and evil. You must change the language and the culture to where his auto- destruction for the benefit of his brother and the honor of the country is his ultimate goal. You must make him his brother’s keeper.

Examine the cultural modifiers today. Mass media, schools, churches. They all use either altruism or patriotism to shape the argument.

”You are to help, because others are hungry”

 “You might be doing fine, but your neighbor is in need”

“How can you enjoy that fat steak when the population of India is starving?”

 “We must be frugal to save the planet”

“We must conserve resources to save mother earth”

“We have 20% of the world’s population and use 80% of the resources”

“Every night millions of children go hungry while yours don’t”

 “Little Mary Blight was denied health care for her pre-existing conditions”

 “You must sacrifice for the good of others”

“How can you be blind to the “X crisis?”

“Will you help? “

“Wont you be kind?”


“How can you be so selfish!”

And there it is in all of its glory. The ultimate form of control over man, GUILT

Man himself must believe that his freedom is evil in order to be ruled!

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