Editor's MessageLiberty Quotes 12th Year17 February 2013
Friends of Liberty,
Another year has passed, and Liberty Quotes has been going strong for 12 years now. The message of Liberty is as radical today as it has ever been, yet more and more people around the world are waking up and throwing off the yoke of submission foisted upon them.
"The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in the last analysis, nothing but the substance of the people.
Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state!
Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity, all vanish."
~ Fred eric Bastiat(1801-1850) French economist, statesman, and author
Submission to the State
For the true lover of Liberty, it must seem insurmountable these days to actually live free while the ever-expanding police state continues its perpetual push into every corner of our lives. Can any other conclusion be reached than the state and its ever-increasing legions of bureaucrats (who are now paid more than those working in the private sector) have every intent to place themselves between every human transaction of every kind? Can it be denied that every sale, every transfer of property, every shipment, every receipt, every message is to be tracked, logged, and taxed by government agencies? And isn't it considered criminal to avoid such interference?
"After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."(1805-1859) French historianDemocracy in America, Vol. II (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1899), Chap. 6
The State places itself as the ultimate judge of what I may do to or with my own body and mind. From the foods we may be allowed to produce or eat, to the sexual partners we may have (and what we may consensually do), to the state-approved 'legitimate' religions and their permitted expressions, to the synthetic drugs we must take and the natural herbs we may not take, to the schools we must attend and the curriculum we must memorize, to the books, movies, and recordings we may read, see, and hear — ALL must have the permission of the State in one form or another.
"No Gulag, evidently, can deter the advocates of state power from believing in their own virtue and in the morality of the power they exercise. We are all Hobbesians now. Virtue is presumed to reside in the state. Its reliance on compulsion is seen as fulfilling, not undermining, morality. Our communicators, oddly employed in the private sector, work tirelessly to ensure that state control is maintained, our taxes stay high, the official message is promoted. The people know, and can only know, a tiny fraction of what Leviathan does, and what they know is what these partisans tell them."
How did we get here?
When did we all become institutionalized? The same procedures used to process hogs at a pig farm are used to process the people. And if we aren't being handled like domesticated animals, we are treated like recruits in the military or criminals in prison — the exact same protocols are being applied to the people at large. We are encouraged to embrace ideologies that put us under the command and control of 'officials' and 'authorities' and consistently manage us as perpetual wards of the state completely dependent upon its favors. Those that demonstrate their loyalty to the system are licensed to work or rewarded with positions of influence, those that do not are made examples to the rest.
"It [the State] has taken on a vast mass of new duties and responsibilities; it has spread out its powers until they penetrate to every act of the citizen, however secret; it has begun to throw around its operations the high dignity and impeccability of a State religion; its agents become a separate and superior caste, with authority to bind and loose, and their thumbs in every pot. But it still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men."(1880-1956) American Journalist, Editor, Essayist, Linguist, Lexicographer, and Critic
In essence, what we have today is neither capitalism, communism, socialism, or fascism which are the familiar terms for dividing and conquering the masses. We are in fact ruled by an oligarchical collectivism in which a hierarchy of control, that differs little from a mafia family or corporate monopoly, has structured a system of economic hegemony in which all the nations of the world are permanently indebted.
And this system is self-sustaining beyond the lifespans of its creators by being written into law, ever sucking the life-blood from the populace whom the system conditions from cradle to grave to believe that the state is authorized to 'protect' them from themselves, all the while securing the oligarchy's power and rivers of tribute and taxes. When all are perpetually in debt to the oligarchy, are we not slaves? When we must pay rent to keep our own property, do we really even own it? This is no less different than the dukes of old whom the Crown granted 'title' to land — land from which they were expected to extract taxes from the peasants upon it. And yet all this is justified in the name of 'democracy' and the supposed 'will of the majority' as, of course, the oligarchy has determined for us...
"And what sort of philosophical doctrine is this — that numbers confer unlimited rights, that they take from some persons all rights over themselves, and vest these rights in others. ... How, then, can the rights of three men exceed the rights of two men? In what possible way can the rights of three men absorb the rights of two men, and make them as if they had never existed. ... It is not possible to suppose, without absurdity, that a man should have no rights over his own body and mind, and yet have a 1/10,000,000th share in unlimited rights over all other bodies and minds?"(1838-1906) English author
The Sacrifice of the Individual
This is nothing new. It is the same as in the monarchical days of Europe, the Roman 'Caesars,' and throughout imperial history. In every epoch the super-power has held the people in its grasp. People were treated as property and their lives subject to the whims of their masters. For eons men have fought over the seats of power of church and state, decimating millions upon millions of common people in the process. What has changed? Isn't this the popular view today:
"The unity of a nation's spirit and will are worth far more than the freedom of the spirit and will of an individual; and that the higher interests involved in the life of the whole must here set the limits and lay down the duties of the interests of the individual."(1889-1945) German Nazi Dictator
The immense power centralized into the oligarchy's hands has never been greater — entire nations can be laid waste in an instant, and it can only be assumed that we the people are merely living but at their pleasure and profit. The real question is why do we put up with it? Why do not the slaves who are the majority revolt?
"I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more if they had known they were slaves."(c.1820-1913) American abolitionist, escaped slave. After escaping from captivity, she made thirteen missions to rescue over seventy slaves using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.
"It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head."American writer
Taking a Stand
The Gandhian movement in India should serve as a prime example of how the common people can throw off the yoke of servitude. And in this age of instant worldwide communications, ideas of Liberty are impossible to stop. While incredible amounts of energy and infrastructure are required to prop up a system of control and servitude, a spark of truth can dispel a cloud of darkness — it is this spark that the oligarchy does everything it can to bury. The collective's obedience and collusion keep billions under the command of a few.
"I never could believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden."
~ ~ Richard Rumbold (?-1685)
British Colonel
His final words on the scaffold before he was hanged in 1685.
The key to freedom from the oligarchy lies in the hearts and minds of the people. It is this awakening to the truth about their servitude that the oligarchy fears. And it is this battle that Liberty Tree aims to promote. It is indeed war — a war already being waged upon us through the lies and corruption of the state. We are faced with the same circumstances that gave rise to the American Revolution, and the same changes in the attitudes of the people are occurring now.
"The Revolution was effected before the War commenced.The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people ...This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, andaffections of the people, was the real American Revolution."(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
Starve the Beast
As the oligarchy attempts to further centralize control of the entire world into their hands, we the common people hold the key to their destruction. Never bet a man at his own game, a police state begs for an excuse to use military power against the 'lawless,' so dismantling the oligarchy's machine may require starving the beast. Our fears of losing our security are unfounded, for who better to secure our own happiness than ourselves? All that we possess in essence is an illusion — it is not ours, it is theirs, and we pay dearly for the 'privilege.' But when we take the needle out of our arms, we will find renewed vigor. Throw off the shackles of debt, and a new world is born.
"People who make careers out of helping others — sometimes at great sacrifice, often not — usually don't like to hear that those others might get along fine, might even get along better, without their help."
~ John Holt(1923-1985) American author and educator
Those that cling to the oligarchy's structure are in fact being duped — their sustenance is extracted from those that the oligarchy has bound. When that tribute stops, the dependents will either take responsibility for themselves or perish.
"Only a large-scale popular movement toward decentralization and self-help can arrest the present tendency toward statism... A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers."(1894-1963) English author
The Battle for Hearts and Minds
Interesting to note that those crying about the over-population of the world never count themselves among the surplus, and yet they will be among the casualties once the con is known to all. It is inevitable that the people of the world will awaken — that is what free minds do. The time fast approaches, for the battle that rages within will inevitably manifest outwardly.
"The tree of liberty could not grow were it not watered with the blood of tyrants."" [Fr., L'arbre de la liberte ne croit qu'arrose par le sang des tyrans.]"(1755-1841) French politician and journalist, member of the National Convention during the French RevolutionSpeech in the Convention Nationale
The only thing one needs is the Courage to face the truth, as inconvenient as it may be. The world is much more in danger of starvation than global warming, for once enough people awaken to the oligarchy's con, the system will crumble — only the courageous and innovative will prosper, and why shouldn't they? Or shall we all follow the lemmings as they jump off the cliff?
"Men had better be without education than be educated by their rulers; for their education is but the mere breaking in of the steer to the yoke; the mere discipline of the hunting dog, which, by dint of severity, is made to forego the strongest impulse of his nature, and instead of devouring his prey, to hasten with it to the feet of his master."(1787-1869) English writer
Collectivism — The Hive Mind
The twisted logic of collectivism sees the independent individual as a threat to the 'social order' — somehow the needs of the group exceed the security of individuals who comprise it. The cult of collectivism does not like dissent, nor does it take kindly to those who want out. They fear self-determination, innovation, and an honest playing field — everything is to be controlled and regulated according to the popular passions of the day — passions that have been cultivated to keep the oligarchy's interests protected.
This is the disease of groupthink, for it is inconceivable to a collectivist that an individual does not wish to rule the collective himself, which in essence is the collectivist's creed, whereas the individualist merely wishes to be master of him/herself. The collectivist has been conditioned to distrust those that neither 'fit in' nor bow to the will of the majority.
The collectivists see everything as 'theirs' — particularly what is not theirs but belongs to others who will not be influenced by the group. The altruists, both religious and secular, implore the followers to sacrifice themselves to the 'greater good' as defined by the leaders themselves. And yet the hierarchy of this 'leadership' finds itself the willing stooges of the oligarchy they supposedly wish to resist — the Occupy Movement comes to mind, as the very reforms they demand merely increase the power and control of the oligarchy itself!
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."(1722-1803), was known as the "Father of the American Revolution."
The Emperor Is Wearing No Clothes
And so, Liberty Quotes continues its 12th year reminding us to stand firm, to be true, to take responsibility for the condition and quality of our lives, without compelling others to obey our dictates, and without surrendering our rights for the oligarchy's promise of 'security'. The emperor wears no clothes, so wake up your neighbors, spread the word, and the illusion will become known to all. Take that needle out of your arm, don't fall for the debt trap, live humbly, honorably, compassionately — yes, it is compassionate to destroy that which has enslaved our fellows. Tough love, shall we say.
"Society is composed of men, and every man is a FREE agent. Since man is free, he can choose; since he can choose, he can err; since he can err, he can suffer. I go further: He must err and he must suffer; for his starting point is ignorance, and in his ignorance he sees before him an infinite number of unknown roads, all of which save one lead to error."(1801-1850) French economist, statesman, and author
Time to turn the tables and judge the oligarchy for their results, to put them under surveillance, to bring their crimes to light — their iniquitous designs have brought foolish nations to their knees. How long will we let this deception continue? How long will we bow to their threats? Are we protecting our children's future by cowering in fear of imprisonment? What world are we preparing for the next generation? Either we are beasts of burden or civilized human beings — what will it be?
"When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the State, and calls for an exercise of the power of dissolution."(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Thanks for Keeping Liberty Alive
I know you have been bombarded with emails from political organizations ad nauseam asking for donations, so I hesitate to do the same. However, your donation will help us keep the message of Liberty going, not just in your own country but world-wide.
Sincerely,
Eric Schaub
Editor/Publisher Liberty-Tree.ca
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