-Caveat Lector-
Those are noble thoughts, Bard... uh ...the problem is from the time we
are born, we are living in a state of unfreedom. If mom and dad were
fortunate enough to have money and property...perhaps, if they owned their
own business... you probably are well situated in the American
system.
However, if mom and dad had the "wrong" complexion, didn't own their own
business, didn't own their own house, and were wage slaves....your place
in the American system is far more tenuous. ...Of course, if you have the
"right stuff" (ie serve the interests of your social and economic
betters), you have an opportunity to enjoy a more generous slice of the
economic pie.
But during the earliest years of your life, you must live a decidedly
unfree and dependent existence..... You are dependent on the largesse and
support of mom and dad through your formative years. You're a parasite, a
albeit a cute little one....but mom and dad are footing the bill and
taking care of your creature comforts.
When you
become an "adult," if you manage to scrape together a sufficient amount of
capital, you might go into business.....only to discover that you are now
dependent on the vagaries of the marketplace.
Or you join the
eighty percent of your fellow citizens who lack capital and must sell
their talents, skills, bodies to those who do have capital. Not much
freedom there, I'm afraid.
Of course, you can pick and choose which
master you will have, so you do have some measure of freedom of choice.
Should I work at this Target or should I work at KMart? Should I work at
Arby's or should I work at McDonalds? The wages are pretty much the
same...although the individual employers will vary, locations of the
establishments, decor, type of uniform you wear... Speaking of uniforms,
you can always go into the military service that provides a rough form of
communistic offerings for its personnel: food, clothing, shelter, medical,
etc.
But without
capital, you will not be able to place a roof over your head, or feed
yourself... Every second that you are alive, you must pay for the
privilege of maintaining your existence.
If you're Steve Forbes, you'll never know what that is like... so although
we can speak in terms of being "free," some of us are MORE "free" than
others.
Of course, we can get into interesting arguments about how the wealthy are
slaves to their wealth, and they'll lose it if they don't maintain it in
certain ways, but like Mae West once said," I've been rich, and I've been
poor. Rich is better."
Now, conceivably, you could take to the hills to live a primitive
existence 'far from the madding crowd.' But you won't be able to
effectively escape the power of the system. Of course, the less dependent
you are on the system,the more "free" you are...to some extent. But the
option of going back to the land, just 'roughing it' up in the hills is
probably not a possibility for some... and if everyone tried it, the
American capitalist system would be interested in closing off this escape
route.
Why? Because in order to maintain the "freedom" of the affluent,
someone has to do the dirty work...someone has to sacrifice himself or
herself in order for the few to live well. In order for our system to
operate, we must remain taxpayers and above all, consumers... Someone has
to buy those products to keep the racket afloat.
Of course, we do have some measure of freedom. We have a few choices in
what kind of products we can buy. Should I buy this slave-produced pair of
shoes that is manufactured in Taiwan (which will fall apart in three
months), or should I buy this other pair of shoes made in Indonesia that
will do the same?
Of course, we are free within our own minds. 'In my soul, I am
free.' Has a nice ring to it. But even our minds are fettered by the
claptrap of the system.... not much freedom there.
Then, there is the biological clock ticking away. Wasn't it Dylan who
sang, "He who's not busy being born is busy dying." After many a summer,
dies the swan.. After you've spent a your alotted time in the labor
market, and you've suffered the thousand natural shocks which flesh is
heir to...you're no longer marketable..and fini.....
But technology has made our lives more comfortable...but even that is
accompanied by problems... and so it goes.
On Sun, 18 Jul 1999, Bard wrote:
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> ON FREEDOM
>
>
> "Freedom" is probably one of the most used�and misused�words by politicians
> of all stripes. If anything, "freedom" is probably used more by statist
> politicians, the destroyers of freedom, than anyone else. Tyrants have
> almost always sold their tyranny to its victims in the name of "freedom."
>
> What is freedom and do you have a right to it? If you do, why?
>
> Before proceeding farther, take a moment to write down your answer to these
> questions. What is freedom? Do you have a right to it? If so, why?
>
> Your definition of freedom should be confined to one, brief sentence. If
> you claim you have a right to freedom, your answer should be restricted to a
> single sentence�no more.
>
> Remember, that the purpose of a definition is to provide a concept with
> identity, to distinguish that concept from all others. A definition should
> clearly set apart that aspect of reality to which a concept refers from all
> other aspects of reality. Your definition of freedom should make its
> meaning real.
>
> This may seem like a schoolhouse exercise, but give it a try. Write down
> your answer, then go to the remainder of this article. You will find it
> instructive. And it will provide you with a clue about why freedom has
> been on the defensive for all of the 20th century.
>
> Freedom is the ability to act without the initiation of force (or its
> threat) being used against you. You have a right to freedom because your
> life is your property, yours to live as you see fit (as long as you do not
> violate the right to life and liberty of another).
>
> If you are free, you have the unfettered ability to pursue your own
> happiness, to make those choices needed for the sustenance of your own life.
> In a semi-free society, such as we have today, your options are forcibly
> limited by statist politicians on the implicit claim that your life is not
> your own. But take special note of this important fact: your ability, in a
> free society, to make unfettered choices is the consequence of being
> unfettered, i.e., of being unconstrained by the initiation of force.
> "Having choices" is not the definition of freedom, it is simply one of the
> consequences of being free.
>
> Now, consider your definition of freedom. Is your definition corrupted,
> even if slightly, by the definition of freedom which has been put forth by
> statist politicians?
>
> Statists define freedom as "having a choice," the kind of choices only
> available to an armed thug or a statist politician. Consider the role this
> definition of "freedom" has played, and continues to play, in the rise of
> America�s welfare state�more accurately characterized as America�s parasite
> state, one in which some forcibly feed off of the earnings of others.
> Having successfully substituted the statist definition of "freedom" in the
> minds of most, statists argue, to quote from Fatal Blindness, "that children
> of poor parents do not have the �freedom� to attend the college of their
> choice or the �freedom� to receive the very best medical care because of a
> lack of funds or that some struggling artists do not have �freedom� of
> expression because they lack money�." The logic of such arguments has
> driven, and continues to drive, statism�s rapacious growth, bringing us
> statist programs that forcibly take your money in order to provide others
> with more "freedom," all at the expense of forcibly denying you the freedom
> to decide how your money is to be spent.
>
> Statists are all over the place offering new "freedoms," new choices made
> available through the initiation of government force. By means of
> compulsion, statists make options available to some by denying free choice
> to others (which is what statists are attempting to do in the case of
> Microsoft in their attempt to force Microsoft to include Netscape in Windows
> 98). In the name of "freedom," statists destroy actual freedom. In the
> name of "choice," statists destroy actual, free choice.
>
> We now have statists claiming that poor children are being denied equal
> access to the Internet, that we must provide them with the same "freedom"
> enjoyed by others, that you are to be forced to pay for computers for these
> poor children�which means: you are going to be forcibly denied the freedom
> to refuse to pay for such computers.
>
> And now we have our chief statist, Clinton, pushing for a patient�s "bill of
> rights," for a new set of "freedoms" that will be acquired by means of the
> initiation of force, either forcing certain individuals to do certain things
> or forcibly forbidding them from doing some things�which means: certain
> individuals will be forcibly prevented from interacting voluntarily with
> others, destroying real freedom. And if they can do it to these
> individuals, they can do it to you.
>
> If actual freedom is to be secured for ourselves and future generations, it
> must be clearly defined. As I have stated on more than one occasion, you
> cannot defend what you cannot define. If the statist definition of
> "freedom" continues to be accepted by a majority, freedom will continue its
> decline�and that is why it is so important to loudly proclaim the real
> meaning of freedom. Only then can you defend your right to it by declaring
> what should be the bumper sticker of your life: "My Life Is Mine. Persuade
> Me, Don�t Force Me. Give Up Your Government Guns."
>
> Fulton Huxtable
> May 31, 1998
>
> � Copyright 1998 Fulton Huxtable
>
> TAKE ACTION!
> http://www.fatalblindness.com/take_action.htm#TAKE
>
> GO TO MAIN PAGE OF FATAL BLINDNESS
> http://www.fatalblindness.com/index.htm
>
> ARCHIVE OF FULTON'S PAST COLUMNS
> http://www.fatalblindness.com/FREEDOMarchives.htm#FULTON'S
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> THE NEW AMERICAN
> http://www.thenewamerican.com/departments/right_answers/index.htm
>
> April 27, 1998
> Volume 14, No. 9
>
> Q. Do you have to be alive to get Food Stamps?
>
> � M.U., Greensburg, PA
>
> A. Presumably it is illegal for the dead to collect food coupons, but that
> is what has been happening, as reported in a General Accounting Office study
> released this year. The congressional watchdog agency estimated that more
> than 25,800 dead people were issued Food Stamps during 1995-96. The worth of
> the stamps over the two-year period was $8.5 million. It used to be said
> that there are only two things one could be sure of � death and taxes. Now
> it seems we are even being taxed to feed the dead.
> --- � William P. Hoar
>
>
> lol
>
>
>
> Bard
>
> Visit me at:
> The Center for Exposing Corruption in the Federal Government
> http://www.xld.com/public/center/center.htm
>
> Federal Government defined:
> ....a benefit/subsidy protection racket!
>
> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
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DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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